[Orangedog]

Social Security payments can be funded by redeeming bonds from the Social Security Trust Fund (current balance - roughly $4 trillion) without raising the National Debt.

Really? Tell us...who is the counterparty on the securities in that "trust fund"?

[DuncanWaring]

The Federal government.

In order to redeem those bonds, the Feds must issue new debt (or print more money), but that’s just a transfer from one column to the other; it doesn’t raise the national debt.