So let me get this straight. For 30 years we've been putting money in a trust fund and the government has just gone and spent it every year, replacing it with bonds (IOUs)
Since the money has been spent, it is gone for good. So those dollars WILL NOT be used to pay for retirement benefits. Instead the government will have to raise new non-SS taxes to 'redeem' those bonds so it will be the current workers who are paying for the baby boomer retirements. The system remains pay-as-you-go and the fund is a fiction to hide that fact.
This isn't any different than had the government not raised SS taxes back in 83 and just started printing IOUs. Except the government would have had a bit less cash and
the people a bit more cash for the last 30 years.
Likewise the government could solve the SS shortfall over the next century by simply putting 2 trillion dollars in IOUs into the trust fund. There you are, no more shortfall starting in 2037.
yep, this is gonna end well.