They’ve been treating Social Security taxes as a general revenue source rot the government. The program ran a surplus for decades, but they spent the money instead of saving it in a Social Security trust account.
If they had used it just to pay down the debt we’d be way better off now.
But they wouldn’t even do that much- it all had to be thrown away as fast as they got their hands on it.
“The program ran a surplus for decades, but they spent the money instead of saving it in a Social Security trust account.”
The government can’t just put surplus SS funds in a ‘trust account’ without having the economy slow down. It’s a macroeconomic effect, like anything else that decreases the quantity or velocity of money in the economy.
The gov’t either has to reduce the SS tax rate to get rid of the surplus (which it used to do) or loan that excess money to another part of the government that will spend it. But piling up money in a segregated account won’t work.