Letters: Action on the U.S. Postal Service is critical for election success

Action is critical on USPS

A principled leader would do all in their power to insure fair accurate elections. Sadly, ours is unethical. Donald Trump is attempting to sabotage the United States Postal Service, an agency critical to our democratic election process.

He is falsely claiming mail-in voting is an easy target for fraud. His own commission disproved it in 2018. He then appointed a hatchet man to undermine it from within. Louis DeJoy, a million dollar contributor to the Trump campaign with reportedly over $30 million in stocks in UPS and XPO Logistics, is postmaster general. DeJoy slowed mail delivery and eliminated mail processing machines. His intention seems not to help USPS succeed but to cripple it.

Trump says USPS cannot compete, it loses money. Really? He conveniently ignores the budgetary crisis the Republican Party created in 2006 that mandates an extraordinary expense to pay for retiree health care 75 years into the future! No other agency, public or private, has this unfair burden.

USPS was designed to operate without taxpayer help. If not for laws intended to destroy it, it could succeed.

USPS employees, present and retired, work hard daily and take pride in their jobs. The underhanded attack by Trump, DeJoy and the Republican Party is an insult and threat to all those postal workers current and retired. The threat to their livelihood is real.

Action now is critical. Replace DeJoy with a pro-USPS PMG. And every postal employee and retiree needs to vote out Trump in November.

James A. Frank, Reading

USPS policies putting votes in danger

Your vote may be in danger! The recently instated U.S. postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, has initiated policies at the US Postal Service that are significantly slowing mail service. If you intend to vote by mail-in/absentee ballot, as is your right in Pennsylvania, this slowdown could result in your ballot arriving to you late or arriving at your county election office late and being disqualified.

The Centre County election office (355-6703) gave me the following advice:

1. If you haven’t done so, the time to apply for a mail-in ballot is now. (The online application process is particularly easy.)
2. As soon as you receive your ballot, fill it out carefully following all instructions, and immediately mail it in to avoid delays in mail service.
3. It is important to note that you may not be able to use the drop-off box at the Willowbank Building because of a pending lawsuit brought by the Trump campaign. Check with the election office for updates.

I believe this mail slowdown is a thinly veiled attack on our right to vote by mail and, not surprisingly, coincides with President Donald Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting as fraudulent (an absurdity as numerous studies have shown) and his stated opposition to funding the Postal Service in order to disable mail-in voting.

As a consequence, I have contacted Sens. Pat Toomey and Bob Casey and my congressman, Rep. Glenn Thompson, to express my outrage and to implore them to demand that DeJoy’s mail slow-down policies be rescinded. Please do the same.

Robert Morgan, Bellefonte

Inaccuracies found in payroll tax letter

Let me make two observations regarding the incorrectness of this letter (Beware of payroll tax suspension, CDT 8/14):

1. Despite repeated Democrat election year statements, the Social Security income for recipients has never been reduced, year over year. The word never means without exception.
2. As part of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 enacted on Dec. 17, 2010, the employee Social Security tax rate was reduced from 6.2% to 4.2% for wages paid during the year 2011 and 2012. This was for the employee’s contribution. The employer’s contribution re-mailed at 6.2%

Wikipedia provides a very complete history of Social Security’s 85-year existence.

Ken Criste, Ferguson Township