Where did all the Social Security trust fund money go?

The answer is that the federal government has borrowed all of that trust fund money and spent it, exactly as Krauthammer asserted. read more

The Social Security Trust Fund is “invested” in a special Government Account Series (GAS) of Treasury Bonds and Notes, i.e. the cash is on loan to the rest of the Federal Government of the United States (i.e., the U.S. Congress), which spent it all on everything the U.S. Federal Budget is spent on, as soon as the cash came in the door from the “sale” of those treasuries. read more

Here’s why: Social Security has a trust fund, and that trust fund is supposed to have $2.6 trillion in it, according to the Social Security trustees. If there are real assets in the trust fund, then Social Security can mail the checks, regardless of what Congress does about the debt limit. read more