The Social Security Trust Fund’s lack of any actual economic assets was noted back in 2000 by Clinton’s Office of Management and Budget, which wrote that, “These balances are available to finance future benefit payments … only in a bookkeeping sense. They do not consist of real economic assets that can be drawn down in the future to fund benefits. Instead, they are claims on the Treasury that, when redeemed, will have to be financed by raising taxes, borrowing from the public, or reducing benefits, or other expenditures.” This quote aligns well with the with the information released recently from Social Security’s chief actuary.