Social Security and the Debt

[PSPS]

3. You're being a tad simplistic

There's nothing unusual or "wrong" about the Social Security Trust Fund bring invested in bonds. That's how it is designed and what it was mandated to do when it was set up under FDR. These bonds pay interest (which is added to the fund) and are, as you say, "special" in that they garner a higher return and even better security than ordinary Treasury bonds which, themselves, remain the safest place to put money in the world.

The whole notion of a "lockbox" never made sense to me because SS was never intended to be some kind of "mattress" into which contributions were to be stashed.