As I understand it social security was set up as a specific agreement with people. If they put their money into a fund then that fund would repay them a specific amount when they retired. It never had anything to do with the government, it was like a big compulsory insurance company. It has nothing to do with a drag on the government, it's not their fault the government changed the rules and put that money into general revenue.
Now the Republicans want to tell the retirees that they have to cut their pensions down, because they prefer to give tax cuts to rich people. The government is quite able to afford to pay its obligations to social security which was never their money to start with.