We're talking about Social Security. When it was set up, it was sold not as a tax supported charity, but as a government run business like the Panama Canal or TVA. It's time for all of us to accept the fact that money was accepted under the terms of a business contract, but that the business is no longer a good idea and has to be shut down.
You can't take money and then change the terms of the contract if you're running a business-- that only works when you're taxing and spending. There are limits with what you can do with tax'n'spending also. If we follow the precedent of 1790 (paying off the war bonds), we'll want to honor commitments made when Social Security money was taken in. Or not-- we could simply reduce benefits to a token level or just eliminate paybacks altogether. Throwing principle and reputation to the wind, we could also declare treasury bonds void and not have to pay back $7,217,554,314,339.98. Russia did it in 1920 and regretted it- it's not nice to have a bad credit rating.
A prediction (you heard it first here). Social Security liabilities will be paid off enough to shore up America's bond rating, and the program will be gutted. Good riddance.
By the time we get to 2040 or so, a typical monthly Social Security check won't even be enough to buy a bag of groceries.