From the perspective of the Government, the excess SS funds have been "tucked away" in special Treasury bills till such time as they are needed. As I stated earlier, this is essentially an accounting trick to legally allow Treasury to go out on the global market to borrow the money when the IOUs are cashed in by SS. Is this mismanagement by SS? I don't think so. SS does what they are told by Congress. There is other legal way to "invest" the excess taxes that were collected in the name of SS. Essentially, Treasury borrowed money from SS to help pay for deficit budgets. You can certainly argue that they should have adjusted SS taxes on an annual basis to exactly match benefits paid - that would have left more money in my pocket. In that case, Treasury would have borrowed even more money. If you want to argue that Congress has mismanaged something then point to the entire Government - I wouldn't pick just on SS.