Agreed. It is what an administration could do that interests me. Treassury doesn't issue bonds in order to pay Social Security obligations. It issues checks directly to the accounts of recipients. (I know -there is an SS Trust Fund.) So the mechanism is there. The administration could find ways to increase benefits and use that to inject additional benefits. The big obstacle is the widely but erroneously held notion that federal expenditures must be funded.

In 2017 a Sanders administration could revisit the 'Trillion dollar coin' idea or employ many other mechanisms to increase economic activity. A National Infrastructure Bond Authority could issue 2% bonds that Treasury could purchase with money freshly created by the Fed. The proceeds from these bonds could be used to pay for the infrastructure. Taxes on uses of the infrastructure so created could be used to retire the bonds. This should work for infrastructure to electrify the rail network, to generate renewable energy, etc. Those proceeds could be put into a perpetual trust to finance needed expenditures that do not offer such an immediate payback - such as child care, assistance to the elderly, etc. Sort of like a very limited form of a nationally chartered bank.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."