Op-ed by Christy Bieber, includes “…  the money in the Social Security trust fund is on loan to the federal government, so it technically is used to fund the spending included in the general budget. But that doesn't mean that Congress has stolen this money -- instead the government sold special issue bonds that the trust fund is invested in, as required by law. These bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, they've always been paid back in full, and they will always continue to be paid back in full (as long as the country doesn't default on its debt, in which case there would be much bigger problems than the future of Social Security). …”