Social Security never dies

Could someone tell me why we're allowing the GOP to claim that Social Security will pay smaller benefits in 2041 or whenever the money in the trust fund runs out? (If it ever does run out.)

I'm thinking that if the trust fund runs out, Social Security keeps paying out benefits just as it used to. It just becomes a drain on the rest of the budget. The program is too loved for us to stop paying the benefits. I mean, there isn't any requirement that we send only payroll tax receipts to the old folks, is there? We can send them income tax receipts and T-bond sale proceeds too. So we don't have a localized Social Security problem. We just have a general budget problem.