Quora Questioner: Why Does The Treasury Owe So Much Money to Social Security?

Confusion about the Social Security Trust Fund is everywhere.  And, sadly, it’s in the best interest of many in Washington to keep that confusion going.

The questioner at Quora is trying to understand how Social Security became the biggest holder of United States Debt.

Dan’s answer:

$2.85 Trillion of that money ($2,850,000,000,000) is gone. It’s been spent and literally replaced by a filing cabinet full of IOUs… The $86 Billion the government owes in interest on these IOUs this year is being paid with even more IOUs.