Brenton Smith: “Is the Social Security Trust Fund Real"?”

Writing for FedSmith: check it out here.

The Social Security Trust Fund has been around for 80 years. Over that time, its role within the program has changed, but the argument has remained the same. Is the Trust Fund real or simply an accounting ledger where wonks play with imaginary cash?

It has lingered for decades because there is no right or wrong answer to the question of whether the Trust Fund is real. It is a theoretical question where different assumptions lead to opposite conclusions.