Charleston.net gives us a picture of the Social Security trust fund.

Two trillion, forty-eight billion, one hundred twelve million dollars. That number represents the value of the assets held by the Social Security trust fund at the end of 2006, including old age, survivor and disability insurance funds.

 Every year since 1982, Social Security has collected more in tax receipts than it has paid out in benefits. In 2006 alone, the difference was about $189 billion. Add up all those surpluses over the years and the cumulative total is $2.48 trillion. Those surpluses go into the Social Security trust fund, presumably to be used to pay future retirement and disability benefits to retirees.

So the market value of the Social Security trust fund is around $2 trillion, right? Wrong.

The market value is zero because there are no real assets in the trust fund. Those surpluses are spent by the federal government each and every year as they occur. Those surpluses also mask the federal budget deficit.