GOP reps put public first in votes for USPS

Four Ohio Republican congressmen cast votes Saturday that won’t likely bear fruit — unless you count demonstrating a glimmer of independence, and we do. We thank Reps. Steve Stivers of Columbus, Troy Balderson of Zanesville, Mike Turner of Dayton and Dave Joyce of Geauga County for their votes to boost Postal Service funding by $25 billion to bolster mail delivery in an election that is likely to feature record numbers of mail-in votes.

With their votes, the four were going against President Donald Trump and Trump loyalists who have opposed aid to the Postal Service, even as Americans worry about voting during a pandemic and the agency suffers from the same harmful economic forces.

That defiance probably won’t help the bill pass; Republicans in the Senate, led by the obstructionist Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, will reject it.

But the gesture is a welcome example of putting the public’s needs before politics, and we hope to see more of it as Trump’s chaotic presidency careens toward what we sincerely hope is its end.

Meanwhile, the destructive partisan standoff over the Postal Service continues. Following the House vote on Saturday to approve the aid bill, Postmaster General Louis Dejoy was grilled by House members at a hearing on Monday meant to shed light on drastic changes the new boss has made.

As public outrage mounted last week over dismantled sorting equipment, truckloads of blue mailboxes being carted away and slashed overtime, Dejoy agreed to halt further changes until after the election. But he said he won’t replace any of the decommissioned equipment and denied that the changes have hurt delivery of mailed ballots.

He insists the Postal Service is easily capable of delivering every potential ballot cast for the election.

But Trump, who believes mail-in voting hurts Republicans, continues to sow confusion and doubt by claiming, without evidence, that a mail-in election means massive fraud.

All the public knows is that mail service has been affected, with people across the country receiving bills too late to pay on time, prescription refills that don’t come before their supply runs out — even chicks mailed to poultry farms arriving dead.

Congress needs to ensure the Postal Service can do the job given to it by the Constitution. The crossover votes of the four Ohioans, along with 22 other House Republicans, is a start. We hope more Republicans will do the right thing.