Nothing left in 15 years? There's nothing there now but a stack of paper. It's paid from the general fund and always has been. What they call the SS Trust Fund is a stack of government bonds. The SS Admin is required to invest the excess money so they buy US Treasury bonds - all from the general fund. There is no SS bank account, only those bonds. When money is needed, they just cash a bond which is paid from the general fund. From the beginning, it's been a coverup to make people think there's this huge SS bank account out there somewhere.
When they say that the fund will go broke in 30 years, that's technically not true. That'll be the point when tax collections no longer cover benefits paid out. Those mega billions in bonds will still be there, payable by our tax money since congress has spent every last nickel of what SS has paid for the bonds. The whole thing has been criminal from the start as the government doesn't have the money to pay off the bonds should SS try to cash them.
