It is a "bailout" because the government originally claimed that Social Security would be a self-sustaining investment system, as far as I understand it.

Please do your research. The government claimed no such thing.

here is as good a place to start as any:

http://www.ssa.gov/history/fdrstmts.html

Social security was a government program. Funded by taxes. From the start.

Note, the first generation? yeah, the retired folks got social security benefits right away, even though they had paid in nothing. This very clearly made it not work as an investment.

I mean, it's perfectly reasonable to disagree with safety net programs.

But don't claim that our safety net programs are bad as investments when they are clearly not investments at all.