The Social Security account was a separate budget item with a huge amount in the black until 1968 when President Johnson raided it. Johnson created what they euphemistically called a unified budget. That let Johnson use current accounts to pay Social Security and then use the huge amassed amount to pay for his Great Society and the war in Viet Nam. (They essentially bought Democratic cotton candy and beer; blowing the money on nothing permanent and solving no problems.) The government wrote IOU’s to Social Security. It was probably one of the greatest robbery schemes in history.
Although there is still probably plenty of road left to kick the can down, more and more people realize that is what’s happening. No politician wants to be the one to stop kicking the can down the road as whoever that is will have to stop spending money like we can just print up more of it….hey, we can print more of it… so they will.
That is exactly how I remember it. It was either fund the war in Vietnam or fund the Great Society, and congress, if given the chance, would have funded the war and let the Great Society remain unfunded. Congress was not given the choice.
Those who bemoan the fact that seniors are receiving more (in inflated dollars) than they contributed, need only look at the amount contributed AND ADD nominal interest for the forty-five to fifty year duration to see that this argument doesn't hold up.