[Copernicus]

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Nothing is "given" to the general fund. Treasuries are SOLD to SSA. The proceeds from the sale pay the deficit like any other borrowing pays the deficit.

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For anyone who is being misled by this, ask yourself: If you buy a bond from yourself, have you done anything?

The next time you want to spend a big chunk of money, write the amount down on a piece of paper first and call it a "bond". Then start making payments to yourself later to pay off the bond, and tell yourself you are doing anything more than playing around with some numbers that are irrelevent to your actual financial position.

That's the social security trust fund.

natedogg

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Even if you think its appropriate to treat all government agencies as one big agency, your criticism still is only valid as a criticism of the spending. If the spending is justified (eg if you must have a new car to be able to produce an income) then you have two choices for that spending, reduce your assets or increase your liabilities. There is no difference on an accounting basis.

Buy that car from your savings ("borrow from your savings account", and pay your savings back with the cash flow that isnt tied up in repaying a finance company. Is that playing with numbers? No, its either a prudent or imprudent financial decision depending on your circumstances.

If you don't like the government to have the alternative of deficit financing then stop the spending, because even if borrowing from another agency = borrowing from themselves, its still a spending problem, not a financing problem and doesnt have a damn thing to do with Social Security.