Talk about two weak nominees

Talk about two weak nominees

I have been following the con- versations on the two cabinet appointments trending toward their lack of qualifications. How correct they are. This is a perfect example of “the old boys’ network” in action. Only things counting are who they know and let’s reward them, their egos, their pensions and have someone the president can manipulate.

They both should be replaced by an educated voter with a good logical mind. From a voters’ viewpoint they have neither the brains, the will or intestinal fortitude to do what I would suggest.

First, start closing overseas bases, i.e. Korea; surely with the war being over for 30-plus years the Koreans should have developed their own defense forces. Stop foreign aid with borrowed money that gets misspent or diverted to someone in power’s pocket. Stop trying to buy off countries for their loyalty. It doesn’t work, they only respond to the highest “briber”.

Second, cancel the F32 program which has no tactical improvements from the current F22, with an absurd cost of $300 million plus cost per plane (but its “green”). Can’t do that it will offend the unions and the other “pork” recipients being bribed for their votes.

We need a Congress that will speak for us, taxpayers who have to tighten their belts while the government and our national debt grows. Stop pork, shrink the government and close the education department. Leave education to the states and local competition.

Daniel Victor Bienko, Canfield

Don’t dismantle the postal service

I am writing to the residen- tial and business customers of Youngstown and surrounding areas in light of the recent announcement that the United States Postal Service will be going down to five day delivery of letter mail and the consolidation of mail processing plants. Five-day delivery would delay the timely processing and delivery of the mail.

The Youngstown Area Local 443 of the American Postal Workers Union has been notified that on or around Feb. 23, all of our collection and cancellation mail will be taken out of the Youngstown facility to be processed in Cleveland. The union was also notified that in about a year, the Youngstown plant will be closed.

Instead of letting postal workers process the first class business mail, the mail is being contracted out to presort houses to do the work that the employees of the Youngstown plant have done in the past. Once our collection mail goes to Cleveland to be processed, it could be weeks before the mail is processed. This is a disservice to both residential and business customers. The Post Office is on a downward spiral to destruction, and the road to privatization is in the near future.

The American Postal Workers Union President Cliff Guffey has issued the following statement:

“The agency’s crisis is a direct result of an unsustainable congressional mandate that was imposed on the Postal Service by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA). The federal law forces the Postal Service to pre-fund healthcare benefits for future retirees and to do so in a 10-year period. No other entity —public or private — bears this burden. Since the PAEA took effect in 2007, the Postal Service has been required to pre-pay approximately $5.5 billion per year. Yet the same law prohibits the Postal Service from raising postage rates to cover the cost.”

Most of the blame results from a Congress that will not act to correct the problems facing the Postal Service. They just want to watch the Post Office self-destruct and then maybe, just maybe, they might move and do something. Congress made this mess, Congress can fix it.

I am urging each and every customer of the U.S. Postal Service to contact your legislators either by phone or mail to voice your concerns and help us save America’s postal service.

Frank Antinone, Youngstown

The writer is editor of The Dispatcher for APWU Local 443 in Youngstown and a national editor-at-large for the APWU National Postal Press Association.