THe missing part of this story is how Johnson allowed politicians to have access to Social Security monies as part of the general fund. Up until then, politicians couldn’t raid the SS Trust Fund.
I’m surprised it took 30 years for that to happen. To think that was never going to ever happen was downright naive.
Yeah they could. In fact the SS fund was being raided in 1943. Instead of combining the funds, which is what happened under Johnson, they would put the SS money in the "Trust Fund" and then promptly "borrow" all that wasn't needed to pay current retirees back out again.
“Johnson allowed politicians to have access to Social Security monies as part of the general fund.”
One more black mark against him in my view. No excuse to allow that and that fund was supposed to be sacrosanct.
Where then were the excess funds deposited, if not in government bonds, i.e. laundered into the general fund?