NPR reminds us of the cost of not getting hitched

Impressively related to this earlier finger-wag at Michael Steele, and totally not in line with this blog's general ineptitude at tracking pop culture's zeitgeist, NPR has a classic reminder of the cost of not getting married, cf. Steele who claims gays getting married will cost small businesses, and that's why you should vote Republican (again, seriously??).

The cost of love isn't an abstract concept in my household: It's precisely $1,820 per year. That's the "gay tax" we shell out for me to be on my wife's health insurance plan, because her company must treat that benefit as additional taxable income.

[...]

Consider the cost to Randy Lewis-Kendall, who lost his husband, Rob, to colon cancer in 2007, their 30th year together. He is about to be denied the $1,161 per month he would have collected in Social Security survivor benefits had his marriage been federally recognized.

[...]

If you're in a same-sex marriage and your spouse leaves her estate to you — for example, the house you shared — you'll be forced to pony up as much as 50 percent of her estate's value in taxes. Price tag for federally recognized married couples? Zero.

So again, remind me how the cost of same-sex marriage is assessed to society? And, please, fill me in again on how not-marriage is equal to marriage and should be viewed as anything other than a shameful slap in the face like Plessy? Go on, Michael Steele. As a black man I'm sure you have some insight on that point.

I'm listening.