During my work life, I contributed to the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax from my wages to help pay for my parents’ (and their peers’) Social Security income, as well as to contribute to my own accruing Earned Benefits.

I also helped to pay for the Social Security benefits of Ayn Rand, who was collecting them under an alias, Ann O’Connor.

Unfortunately, Ronald Reagan raided my Social Security account to balance the nation’s books because Reagan was borrowing a lot of money to make our economy look good during his administration.

I also paid into the fund for my parents’ and peers’ Medicare, as well as into my own accruing account of Earned Benefits. Of course, I also paid for the Medicare of Ayn Rand, aka, Ann O’Connor.

George W. Bush tried to scuttle that fund by loading it up with an unpaid-for Medicare Part D to make it look like Medicare was costing too much money.

Despite the thefts of Ronald Reagan and the nasty work of Bush, there is still a lot of money left in the Social Security Fund and the Medicare Fund and Wall Street wants this money.

It’s frightening that Mitt Romney chose the most anti-senior Representative Paul Ryan (worshiper of Ayn Rand) as his vice presidential running mate this week. If those two had their way, Social Security would be turned completely over to Wall Street through privatization, benefits would be cut and the retirement age would be increased to 70. Not to mention, they would end Medicare as we know it, turning it into a voucher program that would have seniors paying more money for less medical coverage.

I helped pay for Congressman Ryan’s fancy college education with my contributions to Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax from my wages. He used Social Security Survivors’ Benefits to accomplish this. Now, Ryan wants to cheat me and others of our Social Security and Medicare, our Earned Benefits, and I cry “foul!”

Karen Hedwig Backman, Federal Way