‘We’re worried the honey pot will run dry’: Does the Trump administration use my Social Security to fund federal programs?

the trump administration is not using social security funds to pay for other federal programs, despite some confusion online. social security has its own dedicated funding stream through payroll taxes, and by law those funds can only be spent on benefits and program administration. the real issue is that social security's trust fund is projected to run dry by 2035, meaning payroll taxes alone would only cover about 80% of promised benefits. there are plenty of ideas floating around washington on how to fix this — raising the retirement age, increasing the payroll tax cap, or cutting benefits. but none of those have passed, and the clock keeps ticking.