Every president since the Social Security trust fund began operating in 1937 has “borrowed” from it, because federal law requires the Treasury to invest any surplus payroll tax revenue in government bonds. That covers Franklin Roosevelt through Joe Biden, Democrats and Republicans alike. No president ever made a unilateral decision to raid a vault of cash. The mechanism was written into the Social Security Act by Congress in 1935 and has run the same way under every administration since. So the honest answer to which presidents borrowed from the Social Security fund is: all of them who held office while the fund existed.
What the Law Actually Requires
The Social Security Act created the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund in 1937 and the Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund in 1957. Both are managed by the Treasury.1Social Security Administration. Social Security Trust Fund Data Under 42 U.S.C. ยง 401, the Secretary of the Treasury, acting as Managing Trustee, must invest any trust fund money not needed for current benefit payments. Those investments can go only into interest-bearing bonds issued or guaranteed by the United States government.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 401 – Trust Funds
The bonds are called “special-issue” securities. They function like regular Treasury bonds but are sold only to the trust funds and carry the full faith and credit of the United States.3Social Security Administration. Special Issue Securities The interest rate on new bonds is pegged to the average market yield on marketable Treasury bonds with four or more years to maturity. In early 2026, that rate has ranged between 4.0% and 4.5%.4Social Security Administration. Interest Rates on Social Security Investments
The practical effect: when payroll taxes bring in more than Social Security owes in current benefits, the surplus is immediately converted into these bonds. The cash flows into the general fund and gets spent on whatever else the government is paying for. The trust fund holds bonds in return. That is what “borrowing from Social Security” means. It happens as a routine Treasury function, not a presidential decision.5Social Security Administration. Trust Fund Investment Policies and Practices
Why People Blame Lyndon Johnson
Much of the public suspicion traces to a 1968 accounting change. In March 1967, President Johnson created the President’s Commission on Budget Concepts, which recommended consolidating federal finances into a single “unified and comprehensive budget.” The administration adopted the approach for the fiscal year 1969 budget.6Social Security Administration. The Social Security Trust Funds and the Federal Budget
Before the change, Social Security had been accounted for separately from other federal spending since 1935. Folding it into the unified budget meant the trust fund’s surplus offset the overall federal deficit. Social Security was running large surpluses in the late 1960s, so counting them made the deficit look smaller. Critics argue this obscured some of the cost of the Vietnam War and Great Society programs. What it did not change was the investment mechanism itself. Surplus payroll tax revenue still went into Treasury bonds exactly as the law required, just as it had under Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy.
Congress reversed the accounting treatment in 1990. Section 13301 of the Budget Enforcement Act removed Social Security’s receipts and disbursements from the budget calculations used by the President and Congress.7Library of Congress. The Social Security Trust Funds and the Budget Social Security is now technically “off-budget,” but the underlying flow of money did not change. The Treasury still invests the surplus in special-issue bonds, and the cash still goes to the general fund.
Why the Borrowing Got Huge Under Reagan
The largest expansion of trust fund borrowing happened because of legislation signed by President Ronald Reagan. By the early 1980s, Social Security was months away from being unable to pay benefits on time. Reagan appointed the National Commission on Social Security Reform, chaired by Alan Greenspan, which found the program faced shortfalls both immediately and over the following 75 years.8Social Security Administration. 1983 Greenspan Commission on Social Security Reform
Congress enacted the commission’s core recommendations as the Social Security Amendments of 1983 (Pub.L. 98-21).9Government Publishing Office. Public Law 98-21 The law accelerated payroll tax increases, raised the full retirement age from 65 to 67 over several decades, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and brought nonprofit employees and newly hired federal workers into the system.
The result was a massive wave of surplus revenue. For roughly 25 years, the trust fund took in far more than it paid out, and the Treasury issued a growing pile of special-issue bonds in return. The fund’s asset balance peaked near $2.9 trillion. Every dollar of that surplus was lent to the general fund. This is the period people usually have in mind when they say a president “raided” Social Security, but it was exactly the mechanism Congress designed when it raised taxes to build a reserve.
Every President Since Operates the Same Way
Because the process runs automatically, every administration from George H.W. Bush through Joe Biden has operated under the same framework. Incoming payroll taxes are immediately invested in short-term special-issue certificates of indebtedness, which later roll into longer-term bonds. The Treasury keeps records of deposits, accrued interest, and withdrawals the same way a bank manages a checking account.10Social Security Administration. Social Security Trust Fund Cash Flows and Reserves
The amount “borrowed” in any given year depended on the size of the surplus, which was driven by demographics and tax policy rather than presidential preference. Under Clinton, the trust fund surplus helped produce the unified budget surpluses of the late 1990s. Under George W. Bush, Obama, and Trump, the surplus gradually shrank as Baby Boomers began retiring in large numbers. None of these shifts reflected a policy choice by the sitting president.
Since 2010, the Borrowing Has Reversed
Starting in 2010, Social Security crossed a critical threshold: the program began paying out more in benefits than it collected in payroll taxes, excluding interest income.11Social Security Administration. Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs Instead of lending new money to the Treasury, the trust fund started redeeming its bonds to cover the shortfall. The Treasury now has to produce real cash to pay those bonds back as they come due.
So the flow has flipped. Under Obama, Trump, and Biden, the government has been repaying the trust fund rather than borrowing from it. In 2023 alone, the funds also earned $67 billion in interest on their bond holdings, which is itself a form of repayment from the general fund.12Social Security Administration. 2024 OASDI Trustees Report
What the Fund Holds Now and What Happens in 2034
At the end of 2024, the combined OASI and DI trust funds held approximately $2.7 trillion in special-issue securities.13Social Security Administration. Highlights of Financial Position That balance is shrinking each year. The 2025 Trustees Report projects the combined reserves will run out in 2034.11Social Security Administration. Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs
Depletion does not mean Social Security disappears. Payroll taxes will keep flowing in. But after the trust fund is exhausted, the program would only be able to pay about 81% of scheduled benefits from ongoing tax revenue, meaning a roughly 19% automatic cut for every beneficiary unless Congress acts.11Social Security Administration. Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs
Why Blaming a Specific President Misses the Point
The claim that a particular president stole from Social Security is one of the most durable myths in American politics. It persists because the system is confusing. The government collects payroll taxes, replaces the cash with bonds, spends the cash on unrelated programs, and promises to pay the bonds back later. To many people that looks like a shell game.
The trust fund was never a savings account in a vault. Trillions in surplus revenue could not realistically sit idle as physical cash. The law required investment, and the safest instrument available is U.S. government debt. The bonds earn interest, carry the full faith and credit of the government, and the Treasury is legally obligated to honor them, which it is currently doing.
The real risk to Social Security is not past borrowing by any one president. The bonds are being repaid on schedule. The risk is the 2034 depletion date and whether Congress will raise taxes, cut benefits, or combine the two before automatic cuts take effect.