intentionally trying to undermine our confidence in our own government and further divide us.
What you read below is totally false, fake. The Social Security trust has been funded the same way using treasury bonds since 1939. Nobody “spent” your social security check.
In 1986 Congress moved Social Security “off budget.” What that did not mean is that Congress started using Social Security payroll taxes for ordinary general spending inside the trust funds themselves; the money still flowed into the Social Security system and its trust funds, but the budget treatment changed. In other words, the key 1986 change was about federal budget accounting, not a wholesale redesign of Social Security financing
All bonds issued by the Treasury regardless who buys them – intragovernmental trusts, individuals or foreign governments work the same way. The lender buys the bond seeking interest in return, the borrower (US Treasury), uses the cash proceeds anyway it sees fit and promises to repay the bond with interest.
The Social Security trust receives about $63 billion annually in interest. That is declining as bonds have regularly been redeemed since 2021 to pay benefits.
The US Treasury spends nearly one trillion dollars a year in interest payments to all the investors who have purchased government debt, including government trust funds.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
No, the difference is that the Japanese view the treasuries solely as an investment – will the taxpayers ultimately pay enough in taxes or will the government refinance the debt through deficit spending and borrowing so that the bonds can be redeemed.
However, when it comes to notes held by the Social Security Trust Fund, Congress views those as liquidity to be spent on other stuff – allowing/enabling additional spending, a ready source of cash for borrowing, adding to our national deficits and debts.
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So you are saying if I buy a Treasury Bond, my money is used differently than if the SS trust does? They are both spent on other stuff and both return interest so they are both an investment, one by a foreign government, one by an intragovernmental trust and perhaps one by me.
I’m pretty sure Congress makes no distinction when it spends money. If you borrow funds to function, there is no difference. If it wasn’t SS bonds, it would be others. Now there are no more bond purchases by SS and haven’t been for five years and that hasn’t seemed to slow spending on stuff.
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In July 2025, Congress passed and President Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which raised the federal debt limit by $5 trillion to a total of $41.1 trillion.
While the debt held by the Social Security Trust Fund is also subject to the debt limit, I doubt Congress views the Social Security promise as subject to the same standards/limits as other spending. So, just like “emergency spending”, Congress will do what is necessary to keep the checks coming, to keep buying votes from the/among the elderly.
But, more importantly, yes, I am saying that Congress does distinguish. When Social Security was buying bonds (1984 – 2010 or so), that allowed Congress to spend more without having to raise the debt limit or to raise taxes.
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Should be interesting given general funds can’t be used for SS benefits.
Since 1939 and now it’s a big problem.
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By the way, through May 2026, YTD issuance of federal debt reached $13.1 trillion (~$2.6 trillion per month on average for the first 5 months)
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It is humorous the way you guys go round and round over the Social Security Trust Fund. Nobody seems to grasp that the money is not stacked neatly in big piles of cash.
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And it never has been and neither has any of the money allocated to any government trust funds. That would be like sticking it under a mattress.
Actually, the money you put into a bank account or US Savings Bond or money market is not held in a stack of cash either. It’s all put to work, just like buying stocks.
Japan owns $1.1 trillion in US Treasuries. I suspect they know what happened to their cash.
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