There are no Treasury bonds, just IOU’s. To get money they have to cash in the IOU’s and sell new bonds to get that cash. All the surplus SS money was spent a long time ago on Social Welfare Programs. LBJ took that money a long time back.
There are no Treasury bonds, just IOU’s
Nope. They are treasury notes. They’ve been disparagingly called “IOUs” by Koch Brothers and other libertarian propagandists, but they are bonds that have, by law, a higher claim on federal repayment than Treasury bonds sold to individuals.