Wouldn’t it clear up cuts and other issues if ss had its own purse instead of sharing it with entitlement programs? Folks pay into it, it’s their money, it should not be sharing it’s revenue with other programs.
Good point. The question is, what do you do with the SS tax money that’s not immediately needed for payment to beneficiaries. If you don’t have a way to earn interest on it , the value of the “pot of money” declines bc of inflation , just as in a no interest bank account. Currently they “loan” the money to the federal General Fund, establishing Social Security bonds that are to be repaid with interest like any other government bonds. So, if they’re not going to loan Social Security surpluses to the government , should they put the money into private sector bonds? There’s an extra level of risk, of course, because private business don’t have full faith and credit promise to the lender - ie they don’t have the taxing power as a guarantee they’ll be able to repay bondholders