U.S.Post Office-Not Safe for Social Security?- Not Able to Handle Mail-In Balloting?- You Decide

I  am getting on the verge of exhaustion with the citizens of this country getting manipulated data, positioned to make the opposite look bad. The social security by mail  issue is the latest.

 

What you see:

 

The right is insinuating that the reason social security payments aren’t by mail is  due to  it is being unsafe and unreliable.

The left is insinuating that the reason social security checks were stopped by mail is that the government wanted to save  money and cut paper waste. Don’t believe me? Google it.. it’s nauseating 

 

 

The U.S. Department of Treasury began phasing out paper Social Security checks and other federal benefit checks on May 1, 2011. It required anyone applying for Social Security checks and other federal benefits on and after that date to receive their payments electronically.

 

“Getting your Social Security or Supplemental Security Income payment by direct deposit or Direct Express is safer and more reliable,” Michael J. Astrue, the commissioner of Social Security, said in announcing the change.

 

“You don’t have to worry about your check being lost or stolen and your money is available immediately on your payment date,” Astrue said. “There is no need to wait for the mail to arrive.”

 

In 2010, more than 540,000 Social Security and Supplemental Security Income paper checks were reported lost or stolen and had to be replaced, the Treasury Department said.

 

Phasing out paper Social Security checks entirely is expected to save taxpayers about $120 million every year, or more than $1 billion over 10 years. Government officials also pointed out that eliminating paper Social Security checks will “provide positive benefits to the environment, saving 12 million pounds of paper in the first five years alone.”

 

“It costs 92 cents more to issue a payment by paper check than by direct deposit. We are retiring the Social Security paper check option in favor of electronic payments because it is the right thing to do for benefit recipients and American taxpayers alike.”

 

 

 

The Social Security Administration never completely stopped mailing out paper checks. While 99.1% of Social Security recipients now receive their money via direct deposit, that remaining 0.9% equals 549,818 people receiving checks, according to official data published by the Social Security Administration for this month.

 

Ironically, according to these sources the number of people getting checks(549,818)is mirror the number of people whose check were lost or stolen (540,000)

 

It appears to this person that both sides  are basically correct in their assessments. In this case, two different  views have credibility. Pls ditch the demonizing.

 

While we’re here, see some interesting facts on the post office and mail in ballots.

 

In 2019,  according to the U.S. Post Office, they handled an average of 472  million pieces of mail each day. Assuming every single registered American voter, about 158 million citizens, decided to vote by mail, the total possible volume of requested and mailed in ballots would not exceed a typical day of total USPS mail volume.

Dissenters may say, well that’s unrealistic as daily mail count fluctuates greatly depending on a wide range of variables.

 

Also keeping in mind, according  to the US Election Assistance Commission in 2016. Of the 140,114,502 citizens that voted, 24% of those mailed in their ballot. 

 

That number is 33,627,480, which is only a 7% increase in the mail that would be delivered on Election Day.

 

Taking in consideration that over 24,000,000 of those were cast early. That would be over 71% of mail-in ballots that were recived well before Election Day. 

 

For simplicity and given a conservative estimate that those ballots were mailed within 10 days before Election Day.

That would give us a 2,400,000 ballots average per day, which would be a .5% increase in the daily volume..  Why does the word infinitesimal come to mind here.

 

Granted, it is a simplistic calculation , but does put us in the ballpark. So as a US citizen don’t fall for all the hype, use your head and common sense,do the research.

One statement echoed by both sides is true “  This  is an election for the soul of America”

 

Thank you for participating in this conversation, know that at ameriancitizenshandbook.com, we will always do our best to present the facts and let you make the decision.

 

Keeping in that frame of mind, we would be honored, if you looked at buying our book coming out in September.

The American Citizens Handbook- a candid conversation with a concerned citizen..

 

 God Bless and GodSpeed