Fact is, Democrats have done the same thing for years. Fact is, Clinton himself has defended the practice and relied on it. It s only recently, in this last budget debate, that he s found the practice so abhorrent. Beyond that, both parties certainly are lying to us about the trust fund itself. Most everyone believes that they are talking about a big pile of money somewhere that is being held in trust to pay Social Security later.
Doesn t exist.
The trust fund, as they love to call it, is essentially a collection of IOUs, a means of keeping track of money that the government will someday have to recoup to fund Social Security. Probably by borrowing, raising taxes or cutting other programs. Scripps Howard New Service reports that a Cato Institute project on Social Security calls the fuss about the trust fund pure political posturing. The Cato report notes that the administration s own budget document states the trust fund does not consist of real economic assets that can be drawn down in the future to fund benefits. And then there s budget spending.