Have politicians “raided” the Social Security Trust Funds? - AMAC Foundation
The AMAC Foundation has a keen interest in promoting a full understanding of America’s Social Security program and operates a robust Advisory Service featuring a staff of trained and accredited professionals equipped to help seniors navigate the program’s complexities. This interest goes beyond the benefits participants have earned as taxpaying members of the American workforce and is, at this point, more focused on what needs to be done to ensure the future of Social Security for generations to come.
This interest is one of the main reasons our organization works to inform the public about the need to preserve and modernize Social Security. Our basic objective is to enable the program to continue paying scheduled (and promised) benefits well past what is being discussed in financial media today as “Social Security’s insolvency issue.”
So, what is the problem?
In simple terms, under the program’s current financing plan, the Trust Fund reserves accumulated through the years will be depleted fully by 2032–perhaps sooner if we absorb another prolonged recession or if Congress passes additional legislation that further drains the reserves (as in the case of the 2025 WEP/GPO repeal). As you’ve no doubt read or heard about, full trust fund depletion will trigger an estimated 20% to 25% across-the-board cut in benefits in less than a decade. But that doesn’t need to be the case, and AMAC has, for the past decade, been pushing for a solution that would stabilize and modernize the program (see AMAC’s Social Security Guarantee legislative proposal).
What Needs to be Understood?
One of the more interesting–and frustrating–items we encounter in our Social Security Advisory Service is a series of myths and misunderstandings about the program’s history. And one of the more persistent of these is the allegation that the Social Security Trust Funds have been plundered over the years and that this is the fundamental reason for impending financial problems. Our standard response—based on our research and the documented facts about Social Security’s finances—is that nothing could be further from the truth.
At the end of fiscal 2025, the Trust Funds had a reserve balance of about $2.6 trillion invested in special-interest federal government securities—investments that generate revenue ($69 billion in interest in 2024, for example) used to help pay benefits. The Trust Fund balances had been accumulating for decades, with current law dictating that the reserves be invested in income-producing securities. In fact, this accumulated reserve, along with the income it generates, is enabling Social Security to pay scheduled benefits while awaiting legislative action to address the looming solvency problem. And solvency is the real issue with Social Security…a steady decline in the ratio of taxpayers to beneficiaries, compounded by beneficiaries drawing benefits well into their 80s and beyond, will deplete these reserves unless steps are taken to modernize Social Security. Once depleted, benefits would need to be cut to align with incoming tax revenue.
Disspelling a Prevalent Myth
So, with this as a base reference point, our Foundation’s Social Security Advisors continually strive to make folks understand that the money has not been stolen, that politicians have not–and cannot–steal the money for other purposes, and that Social Security is not facing bankruptcy. We believe this understanding will help pave the way for a more measured discussion on how to reshape Social Security for future generations. AMAC remains resolute in pursuing its objective of resolving the problems sooner rather than later, and we fully recognize that this is not a self-correcting situation. Legislative action, as unpopular as it might be, will be necessary to secure Social Security, and AMAC invites your support as it seeks lawmakers’ attention in Washington.