On December 23, 2011, the President signed a bill that extends the tax break on the employee portion of the Social Security Old-Age, Survivor and Disability Insurance (OASDI) for the first two months of 2012.

For 2011, the employee portion of the OASDI tax has been limited to 4.2% of wages up to the taxable wage base ($108,000), as opposed to the "standard" 6.2% of wages. The employer portion has remained at 6.2% of the first $108,000 of wages, and the Hospital Insurance (Medicare) portion has remained at 1.45% of all wages for both employer and employee. The 2% reduction in employee OASDI tax was scheduled to expire at the end of 2011, and, though Congress was considering extending the cut, there had been a stalemate in negotiations.