Rat Bastards and Thieves

I got my first on-the-books legitimate job in 1971, working as a waiter and car-hop at a drive-in root-beer stand. The pay was absurdly low, even with tips (generally about $0.25 per customer), and yet, the government still withheld a portion of my earnings from my paycheck every week. Social Security, I was told.

I paid into Social Security in 1971 and every year since then.  !971, 1972, 1973, and so on, through the 80s, through the 90s, into Y2K and beyond - you get it.  I paid into Social Security for 48 consecutive years until my retirement in 2019. It was all involuntary, but I understood that I was investing into a retirement fund, and that I would get my money back when I retired, should I live so long.

I knew better than to rely on one fund for my retirement, and generously contributed to various corporate-run 401(k) plans during those decades, or at least since 1984.  Most of the money has since rolled over into an IRA, although I still have several 401(k) accounts I maintain as "piggy banks" for when I need money.

One day in early 2019, the Human Resources Manager in the firm I worked for walked into my office and told me that since I was now eligible for Medicare, they were cutting me off from the company's health insurance plan.  I had no reasonable choice but to apply for Medicare as soon as I was eligible.

So now I find myself in 2022, retired and living off of that IRA and 401(k) "piggy banks." Social Security adds much-needed supplemental income (I'd go broke pretty quickly if I just consumed my savings) and Medicare is there for medical expenses should they come up (I'm healthy for now but know that condition doesn't last forever as we age and mature).

Republican presidents of the past have dipped into the national Social Security funds to finance Middle East wars and to balance the books for their reckless spending.  Suddenly, they claim thar the fund is insolvent or nearing insolvency due not to their mismanagement but because of greedy senior citizens demanding the money they invested back as an "entitlement."  And now, far-right forces that look as if they may take control of the House and even possibly the Senate are threatening to end "entitlements" altogether and do away with Social Security and Medicare. 

They may as well send the sheriffs over to my house and throw me out on the street, because that is what doing away with Social Security and Medicare would do to me.  Better yet, they should just send a SWAT team over to shoot me in the head - frankly, that would be quicker and more merciful.  This ROM wouldn't last long out on the street.

On top of that, my IRA - backed by Wall Street stocks - is hemorrhaging cash.  Every time the Federal Reserve announces an increase in the prime lending rate as a measure against inflation, Wall Street panics and the stock market plunges.  This year alone, my IRA has lost over $100,000 in value, and that's a lot of money to me.  On the graph of my savings over time, the trend line is heading straight to "zero."  I'm told to "ride it out," that everything's cyclic and the value will return with time, but no one's ever advised me what happens when the value hits $0.00. Or when you might not have all that much time left in your life.

My savings are disappearing and Congress is flat-out vowing to take away my sole remaining income. My health insurance may go away, too.  I've been retired for over three years now and there's really no going back to my old career - the world's moved on since I've left.  My fate is literally in the hands of a far-right Congress who has shown every sign that they really couldn't give two shits about me or my well-being.

Folks, please Vote Blue.  Not to be melodramatic, but my life depends on it.