An Open Letter to US Rep John Joyce

This is U.S. Representative John Joyce, R-13 of Altoona, Pa. He has voted for a budget resolution that aims to cut over $800 million from programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Here is the letter I sent to his office last night. You can and should do the same. You can find out who your representative is HERE.

Dear Congressman Joyce,

Your website doesn't have a category of concern titled "Everything," so I chose "Other Issue."

I have recently moved to a rural part of the Altoona area, hopefully to stay here for the rest of my life.  I am a former newspaper man who, at the age of 30, joined the Pa. State Police and retired after 20 years back in 2011.

My family has long roots in Altoona, specifically at the old Inlow's Diner in Duncansville.  I was saddened to see it recently burned.  I guess Diners pass away with time.  I never knew old Mrs. Inlow, but I met her once when I was a rookie at PSP Hollidaysburg. Never got a free hot dog.  Though that would have been unethical.  Ethics used to be that way.  I don’t know what I’m seeing these days.

I am concerned that the recently passed house budget resolution spells out the republican caucus's priorities in a frightening way.  I see the potential for $800 million in cuts to medicaid, medicare and / or social security. I see the veterans' administration being eviscerated.  I see the current president trying, by hook or by crook, if I'm being honest, to hollow out the entirety of government so that he can either A) control it all himself or B) simply give himself and his rich friends more money that they truly don’t need.

I see that Elon Musk is dicking around in all of our personal data and the kinds of government information that he has clear conflicts of interest in obtaining. Nobody voted for Elon Musk.  If you are going to deport someone, I think you could start with Elon, because he’s doing real damage to the country.  Far more than, say, a person with an opinion about Palestine.  Far more than, say, an itinerant worker who is sending money home for his family.

The president thinks he can usurp Congressional power and thus makes all of these decrees which clearly violate The Constitution of these United States. These are illegal acts. While Congressional Republicans do nothing.  You all are waving around your copies of the Constitution like you actually give a damn.

I am afraid the president and Elon are going to damage what little social security I receive. I am afraid elderly people on medicare and medicaid are going to be cut off. If past is predicate, I am afraid Mr. Trump doesn’t intend to leave.

I am disgusted that the many people who attacked police at the Capitol on Jan. 6 who have been convicted of serious crimes have been pardoned. This is not "Backing The Blue." As a police officer, I have never abused an immigrant, “legal” or otherwise, though I have sadly seen it done, and I never arrested someone under force of arms without cause or warrant such as is happening now. I have never arrested someone for their opinion and whisked them away without giving the defendant recourse to the law. I have never had someone "disappeared" as I have seen of late, with immigrants who are being held in a central American prison at the cost of millions of U.S. tax dollars.  Sir, the Madres de Plaza de Mayo should not be American women. I am terrified that the transgender and queer community is less safe today than before with all these hateful culture war policies coming down the pike.  I saw in the news the other day that information about the great Jackie Robinson’s service in the U.S. military had been removed from government servers as if Jackie Robinson was a goddam DEI hire.  Seriously?

I am disgusted by the way Mr. Trump has treated Ukraine and embraced (he has always embraced) Putin, a murderous war criminal. How can you stand with him? How can you abandon NATO? What ever happened to the Republicans of Ronald Reagan who dealt with Russia from a standpoint of strength rather than capitulation? There is a large VA center just over by The Meadows. They just made it much larger.  What are the cuts there?  The VA, shamefully, is being cut to the quick.  We owe those soldiers. I am disgusted, because I was a professional journalist in a number of Central Pennsylvania newspapers, and the notion of "Fake News" that is spread by people like Mr. Trump, Mr. Musk and the lickspittles at Fox News and other even less credible news outlets is itself a lie. There exists a verifiable truth. January 6 was neither "tourism" nor a "love fest,” but a hostile coup attempt and we all watched in horror live on television.

Our state parks are being closed. Lake Raystown is not opening for camping this season. Is the republican caucus anti-camping? This is all absurd.

Here's the thing. You voted in a party line vote for that budget resolution I mentioned above. I understand party politics and why you might have done so, because to do differently probably would have cost you your seat.

Still. We need you to act in a way that is kind and which supports your constituents.

I see you are an educated man. I see you are a physician. I assume you are somehow well off or wealthy. How do you feel about the raiding of our finest colleges?  How will these policies affect Penn State?  When will Michael Mann be arrested for the science of climate change? How do you feel about the gutting of the Department of Education? I wonder... Do you need your seat this badly?  Is your dignity worth it?

Because, if you are an educated man, it is impossible for you to believe and support all these things that you and I both see going wrong. The only ways a person can stand by and abide these horrors is if you are either afraid or greedy. My old man, God rest his soul, said, "Greed is the only problem" in the world.  He was a generous old Irishman who had little but who nevertheless told me “Never be cheap.” Well, Mr. Trump WORSHIPS money. Mr. Musk CLEARLY doesn't have enough yet. Here’s who I am.

I have a police pension of $2,700 per month. I knew my Social Security would be pretty small when I hit 62, but that $233 per month helps pay for my car.

It may be a laughable pittance to the likes of you. But you know what? If you, the republicans, Trump or Elon Musk come for Social Security, you will have a district full of wild animals to deal with and we will personally be in the streets against you.  All of you.  All of you who voted for this and did nothing to protect your constituents.

But, you know, there could be another thing that you could do. You could think outside the box. Change your affiliation to democrat and convince one or two other members to do so in an effort to stand up and stop this insanity. You, sir, would be a hero. Because I don't think you need the money or prestige of your seat. I think you have far more to live on and for than I do. Moreover, I don't think you believe what you've voted for.  I think you just toe the party line.  I think you lack the strength to throw off the yoke of Mr. Trump. That's not a crime, sir, but it IS indecent.

I'm a left leaning independent, and I used to vote for local republicans all the time going all the way back to Senator Heinz. But I could walk a mile with a conservative whose ideology was actually about fiscal restraint and responsibility. What Trump and Musk are doing, and none of it is what Mr. Trump ran on, is nothing of the kind!  It is just being disguised as fiscal restraint in order that they can get their grubby mitts on those Trillions in Social Security which ought to go to the people who paid into the system and who are owed.

They are going to cut Social Security to give themselves money... As if they need more.

What in the hell do we stand for, Mr. Joyce? Is it this?  Is this what you stand for sir?

Thank you for your time and courage.