But why would you use short-term fed paper to make money with your stake, when you could just plain buy short-term fed paper, without the risk of people "redeeming" it from you?
Backing a currency isn't about taking deposits from people. You can't back with deposits because your liabilities = assets then. You have to put your own stuff up, but then all you are doing is running the risk that people will redeem it away from you. Backing a currency is basically just giving your stuff away with extra steps.
It is yours. Again, you can't back with "deposits". If you have deposits, the depositors have a claim that encumbers the assets; you can't then "back" something with encumbered assets. You can only back a currency with unencumbered assets. And if you have unencumbered assets, why would you use them to back a currency?