text:  The issue here is that to pay back those bonds when Social Security redeems them, the federal government has to take on new debt, basically taking the debt held by the Social Security program and turning it into debt held by the private market. So depending on whether you consider the Treasury Department paying its bond obligations as driving deficits or not, that's what's pretty much going to determine where you land on the question of whether Social Security is a big driver of the national debt.