In Reply to: Thanks for the informative answer posted by SagoBob on April 14, 2024 at 20:27:14
Yes, the surplus was basically an accounting tool to track the program’s expenses. It was created by the bipartisan reform. For decades the SSA program took in more than it spent and this was the “trust fund” so called. The money still goes to the US Treasury but SSA was tracked off budget and other outlays were on budget. It was known when they did the reforms that the fund would be spent when boomers retired.
Medicare is separate. It was funded by lifting the cap on the Medicare tax which continues to be taxed past the cap which constricts SS taxes. So Medicare isn’t involved in SS funding.
The idea was to make sure that SS was funded for the next 5 or 6 decades, then examine it and solve any funding issues. They didn’t foresee anyone being insane and greedy enough to believe deciding to starve future retirees could come into political power. Hopefully they were right.