If you are disputing then I think that this is a semantics and interpretation issue. The first sentence of the Cato Institute paper has this "During the presidential debate, Vice President Gore told the nation, “I will keep Social Security in a lockbox ...". I have always thought that meant it was there and he would keep it there, for various values and truthfulness [grin]! However I can see your point that he might have meant future tense. Further reading does show that there was a
GOP use of the lockbox metaphor in 1999 so Al Gore may have tried to preempt that during his campaign.
In either case, there is NO lockbox and there never has been.
Politicians, of all stripes, will not let a pile of money lay around DC.
What FICA should have done in the very beginning was treat it as a mutual fund and invest those funds in stocks, not government bonds...................