The FICA thing never should've been agreed to.
I recall Paul Ryan was against it because, as he tried to point out, those temporary gimmicks didn't work under Bush why would they work under Obama?
I assume you mean the original 2 years ago when they were first cut. That was the Dem lame duck congress so the House Rs were irrelevant and the R Senate minority agreed to that to get the full extension of the Bush tax cuts for the two years. At the time I thought that this was a great deal for O, but it was spun into a R victory over O.
Its ironic and I remember warning this might happen : in some ways the Republicans had more leverage without the House in 2009 to 2010. I guess they wrongly figured they could (having the house) get rid of the FICA tax cuts at the end of the year when they expired.