Except, it has never ever been on any repayment schedule.
That is not the way SS works. SS is a pay as you go system, i.e., today's workers pay for the retirement benefits of today's retirees. Whe SS was generating a "surplus," i.e., revenue exceeded benefits paid, the additional revenue was deposited into the General Fund. Treasury issued a non-market, interest bearing T-Bill in the amount of the "surplus" and deposited it into the SSTF.
The SSTF currently contains $2.6 trillion, which is now being used to make up the shortfall between revenue and benefits. SS has been running in the red since 2012. The General Fund must redeem these T-bills and since 42 cents of every federal dollar spent is borrowed, we must borrow 42% of the money to redeem the SSTF T-Bills. The SSTF is included in our $16 trillion national debt and is held under "Intragovernmental Holdings." So the reality is that we owe that money, albeit to ourselves, but the SSTF still represents an unfunded liability.
SS is going broke because it is actuarily unsound, not because of the SSTF and what happened to the "surplus." In 1950 there were 16 workers for every retire; today it is 3.3; and by 2030 there will be just two. And benefits are not linked to revenue. In essence, SS is a Ponzi scheme. Current retirees are getting far more out of the system than what they put in. Future generations will not.
No, it does not.
There is no "trust fund." There is no magic Social Security Vault surrounded by unicorns.
The Social Security "trust fund" contains nothing more than IOUs that have no value beyond a promise to impose higher taxes on present and future workers - period. Social Security, every dime of it, is funded by current taxes on working people and debt.
I agree that if Social Security really had been fenced off from looting (before Johnson and the Democrats got their hands on it), and if SS Disability, SS to Illegals, etc - had been kept out, there would be Trillions in an actual fund today.
But, there isn't - and that is the reality.