Like millions of people I’ve paid plenty into Social Security and Medicare. A back of the envelope calculation gives a figure of well over $100,000 into Social Security and tens of thousands into Medicare. I’ve been paying in since 1976 right up until today; insurance actuaries could figure out the present value of that investment to the penny. Best I can do is a rough estimate of the present value — the lump sum of money required now to secure those benefits in the future if I used a commercial insurance company — and that works out to around a quarter of a million dollars.

You know, if someone really wanted to compromise that, the best way to do it would be to offer a cash buyout, maybe 50 cents on the dollar. Plenty of cash strapped Americans would have no choice but to take it. But for some bizzare reason certain politicians and pundits seem to think we’re raring to hand it over for absolutely nothing in return.

Point being, that’s a nice chunk of change! And I’m counting on it, because at the half century mark I’m way too old to start over again. But I rarely if ever hear anyone mention the cold hard cash value that millions of folks like myself have committed to these programs. Worse, no one ever points out that the only way reducing benefits helps the budget deficit — short of eliminating the programs when they stop running a surplus — would be if we cut expenses but keep charging employees and/or employers full boat. I’d like to see the poor sonofbitch who runs on that idea.

When I brought this up to a Teaparty friend the other day, who like all the others oddly swears they were the one in a thousand who objected to Bush’s profligate deficit expansion, her response was, “That’s what you get for trusting the government”. But it’s not the government who’s trying to screw me out of my bought and paid for annuity and irreplacable healthcare, it’s almost entirely conservatives exemplified by the very same fucking Teaparty. And yeah, duh, I don’t trust them and that’s saying it nicely. Whenever wingnuts prattle on about the horrors of raising taxes on zillionaires to repair the trillions in damage done by Republicans, I’m always reminded of that great episode of South Park where the boys download music from the Internet and a Dickensian figure takes them on a tour of what horror ensues for wealthy musicians: “Not a Big Deal?” That would work fine if adjusted for Social Security and Medicare: ‘If employees insist on getting the benefits they paid for fair and square, David Koch might be forced to use a personal jet with no remote for the surround sound system!’

Bottom line, my vote is a pretty simple calculation: I’ll vote for whomever preserves my benefits the best (At present it happens to coinincide with the political ideology that most values science and reality which is sweet icing on the cake). If someone wants to steal my money to pay for dumbass wars and tax cuts that didn’t work, I’ll vote against them in a heartbeat. And if the choice is between the lesser of two evils, that’s an easy call for me. It ought to be an easy call for anyone.