Dear President: I'm using your money to support a Democrat

To: Social Security Administration, Office of Public Inquiries and Communications Support

1100 West High Rise

6401 Security Blvd.

Baltimore, MD 21235

From: Gail Wells

4760 Roark Drive

Richland, WA 99352

This is to inform you that I plan to give my $90 one-time Medicare payment to the campaign of John Duresky, the Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives in Washington’s 4^th Congressional District, where I live.

I received the payment this week from the Social Security Administration at the behest of President Trump. According to an email that came over the President’s signature yesterday, the money is ostensibly “to offset some of the cost of (my) October Medicare premium.” It’s clear from the email that the President regards it as a personal gift from him.

I’m going to call it what it is: a flagrant and laughably transparent attempt to influence public opinion in advance of the midterm elections.

For a President to use public money in this way may adhere to the letter of the law (distributed as it is from the Medicare Improvement Fund). But using it to sway voters is blatantly unethical. That $2 billion does not belong to the President. It is not his personal campaign fund. And in no way does this payment “improve” the Medicare program.

But I stopped expecting ethical behavior from this President long ago. So if he’s going to give me money, I plan to use it for a better purpose.

Gail Wells

P.S. If my vote were for sale, I’d charge a hell of a lot more than a tankful of expensive gas.