USPS warns it might have to shutter by June ....

[uponit7771]

USPS warns it might have to shutter by June as $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package provides no funding

https://fortune.com/2020/03/30/usps-postal-service-stimulus-package-no-funding-post-office-mail-delivery-could-shutter-june-coronavirus-relief-bill/

Today, the Postal Service is just as essential: It delivers about 1 million lifesaving medications each year and serves as the only delivery link to Americans living in rural areas. Working with other delivery services like UPS, the agency supports $1.7 trillion in sales and 7.3 million private sector workers year, and this year will prove essential to delivering the 2020 Census to citizens as well as any vote-by-mail initiatives. The USPS is the federal government’s most favorably viewed agency, with an approval rating of 90%.

Looks like they missed a step here or MAGA Cultist left it out

[HAB911]

1. The hits just keep on comin'

[TheBlackAdder]

41. That means FedEx and UPS can't keep leeching off of their Final Segment Delivery Services!

[SergeStorms]

67. Yeah, whenever I see FedEx "SmartPost".....

I look for other alternatives in shipping. They wait until they get full bin for an area, then FedEx the bin to the USPS in that area. Your parcel could sit there for a week waiting for a bin to fill up. Then USPS fulfills FedEx's shipping obligation.

[luvtheGWN]

90. Amazon is starting its own delivery service

so FedEx stock dropped when that news came out. Wondering how long FedEx will actually stay in business....

[live love laugh]

85. But billions to private industry including negligent Boeing nt

[CrispyQ]

2. And the headline above yours is about the Dems trying to legislate mail in voting.

The last thing we need is more chaos around this critical election.

[guillaumeb]

6. Voting by mail is promoted by all of the postal unions.

It works. With a vote by mail process, the GOP cannot suppress voting by closing polling places.

[CrispyQ]

8. I get that. Just pointing out that if the Post Office has to close due to the crisis...

what then?

I predict one of the most chaotic and fucked up elections ever.

[uponit7771]

7. +1, the KGOP wants to kill USPS so mail in voting wont be possible. They know they're doomed ...

... if we can mail in vote.

Sucks this is what it takes to move this country forward

[iluvtennis]

15. I think there is some truth to that supposition. nt

[thegoose]

70. Damn right

[SheltieLover]

29. THIS!

K&R

[brush]

36. The repugs have wanted to kill the PO for years to give that business to FEDEX and UPS...

and thus campaign donations. Getting rid of it now to stop voting by mail—icing on the cake.

[3Hotdogs]

55. Yeah, everybody knows gub'mint can't do anything right.

Private business solves everything.

The push to put U.S.P.S. out of operation, started with Ronnie Raygun's administration and the introduction of Nooty-toot-toot and Bathtub Grover into cablevision.

[Cetacea]

76. Indeed

This needs to be addressed ASAP in subsequent stimulus packages!

[lagomorph777]

61. Coincidence? I think not.

[guillaumeb]

3. Recommended,

From the article:

With a negative net worth of $65 billion and an additional $140 billion in unfunded liabilities, the USPS originally expected to run out of liquidity by 2021 without intervention. That has accelerated rapidly because of COVID-19. Fewer people and businesses are sending mail because of the outbreak, which could hasten the decline of the Postal Service and close its doors as early as June, officials warned.

And that negative equity, and the vast majority of the unfunded liabilities are all due to the 2006 Postal Enhancement and Accountability Act. The media generally ignores that part of the story.

[uponit7771]

10. +1, I pray maga cultist will be voted out in such numbers we can fix that

[guillaumeb]

11. Agreed.

that one Act is responsible for approximately 95% of the USPS shortfall and deficit.

[NurseJackie]

30. And that just pisses me off to no end, too!

And that negative equity, and the vast majority of the unfunded liabilities are all due to the 2006 Postal Enhancement and Accountability Act. The media generally ignores that part of the story.

And that just pisses me off to no end, too!

Thanks for highlighting it.

[guillaumeb]

59. You are welcome.

Stay safe, and stay active.

[getagrip_already]

4. The gop has wanted to kill it for years....

Just another useless public program. They want free enterprise to do the job.

They won't let it be saved, but there are an awful lots of employees in every state......

Pigs every one of them.

[MyOwnPeace]

45. Let's be clear...........

I'm SURE he means "the gop" - NOT the postal employees!

[Ilsa]

78. And now that USPS is approaching fully funded pensions,

the buyer will steal as much of the pension money as possible.

[keithbvadu2]

81. A Mitt Romney specialty - vulture capitalists

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Hell of alot more essential than gun shops!

[Initech]

12. So yeah gun shops essential. Post office not essential.

Sigh... it just gets worse.

[AtheistCrusader]

19. I dunno, if I want to ride a donkey from Seattle to Kalispell to deliver my grandmother

a letter in this post-apocalyptic wasteland, I will probably need a rifle.

(J/K, Postal Service is utterly essential. Core function.)

[IronLionZion]

49. We don't need to ship supplies in this country

but we may have to start shooting this virus.

[UpInArms]

9. Everyone can thank George W. Bush for this fiasco

https://www.phillytrib.com/news/bush-era-law-gouging-u-s-postal-service/article_392b3966-ed0a-5f97-b7cc-c48cd9e33322.html

The operational efficiencies — as the Postal Service refers to them — are aimed at reducing costs by $20 billion by 2015 in order to return the agency to profitability, according to David Williams, vice president of USPS Network Operations. That would be a noble accomplishment, except for the fact that — on paper at least — the USPS already turns a profit every year. But a mandate contained in the Postal Service Accountability and Enhancement Act — a 2006 reform bill that was signed by President George W. Bush — created a highly unusual burden on the agency that within a single year helped turn it from an operation that pulled in $1.4 billion in profits in 2005 to one that now bleeds cash like a sieve.

Embedded in the law is a requirement that the Postal Service put 80 percent of its retiree health benefits for the next 75 years into a newly created Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund. The payments are to be made at a highly accelerated rate that amounts to a total cost to the USPS of more than $5 billion each year through 2016. According to Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, the Postal Service is essentially being asked to pay the future health benefits of employees that don’t even work for it yet.

By contrast, most private sector companies pre-fund just 30 percent of future retiree health care costs, if they do so at all, and no government agency is required to pony up as much as the USPS for future benefits.

“Nobody else is required to do this. No government agency, no private company, nobody. And that’s what’s pushing the Postal Service towards the edge of bankruptcy,” said Sally Davidow, a spokesperson for the American Postal Workers Union, which represents more than 360,000 postal workers.

According to Davidow, the pre-funding caveat was inserted by the Bush administration at the last minute into what had been a widely popular reform bill, though she points out that the APWU opposed it from the start.

[Mersky]

16. Ding, ding, ding!!!!! [phone]!!!!!!

[UpInArms]

20. My mother used to say ...

“My, you have a long memory”

.... I think it is important to never forget what they have done

[Mersky]

25. Oh, I haven't forgotten

And I am prepared to remind anyone who dare smite the postal service, etc. Thank gawd and atoms they’re still around today.

Is a good reference, rundown of dubya’s screwing over of the USPS that you posted. Just hacks me off to think that a service so critical in good and bad times could be under threat because of past republicon malfeasance.

[moose65]

38. Yep!

And also, if I recall correctly, this bill was passed during the lame duck session late in 2006, AFTER Democrats had won back the House and the Senate but before they had taken office. Republicans have made that lame duck shit into an art form over the past 15 years.

[MyOwnPeace]

46. Well, as if

we don't already have enough material for nightmares until November, you deliver this jewel to make our day complete!

(NOT being critical - glad to know that somebody is "on watch" for things that could happen in the future - you know, like when PRESIDENT OBAMA appointed a team to monitor for world health problems..........)

[MichMan]

82. It passed overwhelmingly in both the House and Senate with little opposition

[moose65]

84. Yes, but I think this was put it later

The bill had some popular stuff in it, then this turd hit the punch bowl. Maybe Democrats thought they could reverse it later, but they never did. I know Democrats aren’t innocent here, but this never would have come up if the Dems had been in charge.

I think lame duck sessions should be outlawed, personally.

[marlakay]

39. Until Bush did that trying to privatize it

It always ran a profit. That law needs to be undone.

We can not survive this virus at home without the mail and for me who lives in a state of mail voting only it will create such a chaos you have never seen before.

Scared people unable to get deliveries. UPS no way can do it all they are already backed up.

They are once again trying to use this to privatize the mail system.

Fuck them!

[Nululu]

93. House should undo this in a separate bill

Covid19 shows we need the USPS more than ever.

[BeckyDem]

13. The Republicans have screwed them so many times. grrrrrr

I despise Republicans, all of them.

Passed by a Republican-led Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush, the PAEA gave the Postal Service new accounting and funding rules for its retiree pension and health benefits. Up until 2006, the USPS funded those obligations on a pay-as-you-go-basis, pulling out of its pension fund and adding to it as retirees' costs came in. But the PAEA required the Postal Service to calculate all of its likely pension costs over the next 75 years, and then sock away enough money between 2007 and 2016 to cover most of them.

https://theweek.com/articles/767184/how-george-bush-broke-post-office

[UpInArms]

21. It was a terrible thing ... to fund his ill-advised wars

eom

[BeckyDem]

28. So horrible.

Today is quite depressing.

[UpInArms]

32. I realized, in my late 20s, that the people always suffered the most

From republican policies ....

I will be 64 this month ... I am sick of knowing that each time they take office, the quality of life will plummet to new unseen depths ...

Am so weary of their ability to whitewash their crap ... having the media polish their turds and do the botherism crap ... hearing people parrot the lies and obfuscations ...

I feel like I live in a world with collective amnesia

[BeckyDem]

34. Its hard, I am a senior too. Lately its too hard.

Once we can make some significant wins in November it may hold some promise. My fears are more for my kids at this point.

[Karadeniz]

88. I don't think it's forgetfulness...I think most people never knew...and that hasn't changed.

[liberalmuse]

14. This one thing would absolutely devastate our economy.

So many people depend on the USPS, including Amazon and UPS, and millions of at-home workers. This absolutely cannot happen and that 2nd round of stimulus package needs to be rolled out ASAP. How short-sighted of our Congress to leave them out of this. Or perhaps it's just the GOP trying to kill one of the greatest businesses on the planet in lieu of privatization. Assholes.

[Initech]

17. Yeah we need to save the USPS, it's more vital than ever now.

[bluestarone]

23. 100% agree!

[woodsprite]

58. You know if Trump can screw Bezos, he will take every opportunity to do so. nt

[PufPuf23]

18. USPS gone, then the USA is for all intents and purposes is over.

A privatized postal service would be an expensive nightmare for most of us.

[LAS14]

22. Postal delivery is in the constitution, I believe. But maybe paying a company to do it counts??? n

[PufPuf23]

31. Typical GOP doing oits best to disable a functioning institution.

Thought the Constitution was just another archaic piece of paper. Not sarcasm.

[A HERETIC I AM]

73. Article I, Section 8, Clause 7

empowers Congress "To establish Post Offices and Post Roads"

[marlakay]

42. And the real stupidity of it

Is it will hurt the rural communities the worst, so why would republicans do this to their voters? I know they are stupid but wtf!

[underpants]

24. Good read. The Postal Service's Surprising Role in Surviving Doomsday

https://www.wired.com/story/us-postal-plan-coronavirus-vaccine-doomsday/

The little-known Postal Plan, which dates back to the Clinton era, charges mail carriers with delivering critical supplies—like vaccines—as a last resort.

If and when a mass vaccine finally arrives for Covid-19, Americans may be surprised to learn precisely who might knock at their door to distribute the life-saving aid: A mask-clad, gloved postal carrier, flanked by a deputy sheriff or National Guard soldier.

The Postal Plan would involve “all available USPS employee volunteers,” and before they were sent out door-to-door each would be provisioned with prophylaxis and barrier protection for themselves as well as their families—a plan that might be easier to achieve in theory than in reality given current supply chain problems. The plan notes that it’s critical for the Postal Service to overstaff its medical countermeasure program: “The USPS will recruit a greater number of employee volunteers than the number of delivery assignments required during

[uponit7771]

35. +1

[turbinetree]

26. Yes it is in the Constitution................But Congress is the one that must do something........

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/congress-has-constitutional-duty-preserve-and-promote-post-office/

[Progressive Jones]

27. Do they really want to make 800,000 Americans,

many of whom are armed and trained veterans, pissed off at this point in time?

[Ad Infinitum]

33. His Royal Pestilence

What can we do?
Burn up the lines calling
Send postcards?





Where do we post or otherwise express our Wrath: Thus we die with only a whimper?



NO

[LastDemocratInSC]

37. I wish Ben Franklin was with us. He would seek out The Madman and punch him in the nose.

[PennyK]

40. The article says nobody's sending mail

Whaaaa? People are ordering supplies like crazy!
Wouldn't, like, Amazon need to jump in here, at least?

[marlakay]

44. A lot of the things I order come in the regular

Mail. Amazon works with them, my medicine comes in regular mail.

[Traildogbob]

47. Total bullshit

I still mail in all my bills every month. I am certain many others do, never felt comfortable with people having my full info and directly taking my money out. And that being said, many many businesses will lose the monthly payments; mortgages, car loans, insurance premiums, medical bills, need I continue. This would kill business and destroy people’s credit before finding alternative payment possibilities. Do not kill the USPS, save that for the GOP party. They have been killing this country for decades, and are only a few steps away from achieving that goal.

[Delmette2.0]

54. Yep, bullshit.

I use my banks online bill paying feature. I assume that the payment is issued by check and put in the mail. The USPS mail that is.

Who is ready to take over that role on July 1?

[Traildogbob]

65. Also

The majority of Veterans are encouraged to, and do, get their medicine via USPS, including me. So shipping that medicine FedEx and UPS would cost us Vets shipping fees in already steadily climbing prescription costs on fixed income. How much more can Veterans get screwed while the Burrs in congress play the markets getting rich. MurKKKa, Freedom, Patriots. MAGA, and don’t kneel in respect to Vets. Burn GOP, Greedy Old Pricks, to the ground.

[Delmette2.0]

66. +++++++ nt.

[moose65]

95. My partner works for the Postal Service

So I kinda have some inside information. Amazon drops off TONS of packages that are then delivered by the Postal Service. There is no way that a private company would be able to deliver to every address without the USPS.

That being said, the Postal Service DOES need a few changes, one of which is the sheer number of Post Offices, especially in some rural areas. The county next to me is a very small county with a population of about 15,000 people, and yet that county has more post offices than MY county, which has a population of about 60,000. That might have been necessary back in the days when travel through these remote mountains was difficult, but that is no longer the case. Some of these Post Offices are only 3 or 4 miles apart. We don't need that many of them any more! They have already eliminated rural delivery at a lot of those offices, anyway.

The biggest problem, though, is that Congress still gets to keep sticking its nose into Postal Service business. It's kinda like how they are constantly trying to fuck with the local government in DC. The Postal Service should be able to add services and raise rates without having to depend on Congress. The PO needs to be completely independent.

[DenverJared]

43. I'm sure the next package from congress

will contain funds for USPS. USPS is as important as America itself.

[gristy]

48. My thought too, reading this thread.

They'll fund it. Next package. Hang tight!

[librechik]

50. ditto! I hate the way the USPS is being abused and strangled.

Typical clueless GOP BS!

[uponit7771]

52. +1

[Turbineguy]

51. The republicans will be dancing in the streets

They've been wanting this for ages!

[Evolve Dammit]

53. Their goal is to destroy all government, keep what is necessary to line their pockets and keep power

Christo-fascists. And they may well succeed at this rate. Elections will be the watershed, especially if GOP is successful in postponement or outright cancellation for Wartime President Bonespurs.

[not_the_one]

56. After January 20th Biden needs to...

Declare the USPS sacrosanct, and ensure its continued viability. The repubs purposely made them insolvent with the retirement liability that is unique to them.

Declare AMTRAK to sacrosanct, and ensure its continued viability. The repubs have been doing their best to destroy it for decades. We NEED alternatives to cars and planes. It needs to be EXPANDED. BIGLY!!!! And be HIGH SPEED!!!!!

Refurbish the entire interstate highway system, making sure it is ready for self-driving cars. (Can we say "infrastructure funding"? I thought we could! ). They are coming, whether we like it or not, so we just as well be IN FRONT of it, rather than being forced to play catch up... Computerized control of all road vehicles would ensure safety, reduction in fuel use helping to clean our air and reduce CO2 in atmosphere, combating climate change.

Besides, you could put your destination coordinates in and sleep, read, watch media, fuck, the possibilities are endless, until you get there. It is a win win win win......

[uponit7771]

63. +1,

[Beartracks]

57. Everything Trump touches dies. Why tf did so many Americans have to fall for his stupid con in 2016?

[Fla Dem]

60. Republicans have been bent on privatizing the USPS for years.

[tclambert]

62. The USPS has operated continuously since 1775. Benjamin Franklin was the first Postmaster General.

And now the Republicans want to wreck it, after 245 years. Way to go!

[grantcart]

64. And if the election is largely vote by mail?

[bagimin]

68. The P.O. is America

f this crap. Can't somebody stand up for something?

[customerserviceguy]

69. Congress needs to double the price of sending junk mail

Even with the current situation, we still get plenty of it. Catalogs once or twice a month from places we haven't ordered from in years. Yes, we asked them to stop sending them. We live in a neighborhood with a lot of retirees like ourselves, we constantly get junk mail from investment hucksters like stock brokers, and ads for hearing aids, etc.

Maybe it should cost more than fifty cents to mail a letter, for those still stuck in the 20th Century. I like sending greeting cards every once in awhile, but it's absurd that the card costs way more than the stamp to send it.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

71. Is USPS trying to get out of pension/health obligations for its retirees?

Threatening a shut-down sounds like a management lock-out ploy. As long as we're in the mood for 2-trillion-dollar rescue plans, the USPS might as well nuzzle up to the trough.

[Historic NY]

72. Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA), is bleeding the post office

[link:https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-04-04/congress-not-amazon-messed-up-the-u-s-postal-service|

[CousinIT]

74. Intentionally left out. Republicans have been trying to defund USPS for decades because ...

....they DESPISE the postal worker's union - one of the largest in the nation.

[appalachiablue]

91. +2 Same for govt. workers at all levels & teachers--in Unions!

[kimbutgar]

75. My Maga brother in law got a job last year as a postal worker

He actually loves his job and likes the union protections. I wonder how he’ll feel if it collapses and he loses another job? That said they could pass a quick bill eliminating that poison pill the repukes put in years ago.

[uponit7771]

80. +1

[hangaleft]

77. USPS is *vital* to me (and, I'm sure, many others).

Massive $$$ should have been given to USPS long before 1c¢ was given to Boeing.

[Liberty Belle]

79. We should all go buy stamps and stop using other services.

And tell your Congressional representatives how important the postal service is to you.

Especially now, for many elderly shut-ins this is their main source of outside contact getting letters, cards, catalogs etc.

And for seniors not online, they likely rely on the mail to pay their bills, get their bank statements, and so much more.

[moose65]

86. Amen to this

The Postal Service is not supposed to make a profit - it’s a service. They have a tremendous infrastructure and they must deliver to any address in the country. They also deliver many, many packages for FedEx and UPS. If the PO suddenly didn’t exist, shipping charges would skyrocket. People would be BEGGING for the Postal Service if that happened. For years, Republicans have tried and tried to kill the PO, so someone could get their hands on all of that money. If they get their way, they’ll sell off the most profitable parts of the Postal Service and the routes in cities, leaving a shell of the Postal Service for rural areas. They also hate, hate, HATE the Postal Workers Union.

[Rebl2]

92. Actually the

post office will not exist in many rural areas if they go away. FedEx and UPS don’t have any way to sort mail and of course they don’t deliver to each house every day. There will be an outcry in this country if they try to get rid of it.

[dalton99a]

83. Kick

[ThingsGottaChange]

87. Not many of you will like this

First. let me say I adore Obama as much as any of you. I actually cry when I see pics of him and/or family.

But, how much money do you think USPS lost when he made it a law to ban cigarette sales online that shipped through USPS? There were thousands of small companies that were in that business. Shipping tons of cigarettes to customers.

Yes, I get why it was done. Well, to some extent. Were that many 10 year olds really using their parent's credit cards to buy smokes online? I also know that FedEx and UPS also would not ship them either.

But, ever wonder how much money the post office lost just from this one product being banned? I've often wondered that. That was a HUGH business. Now all those revenues are gone and have been for a long time. What effect did it really have on USPS???

Just wondering....

[MichMan]

94. I think the purpose of the ban was to stop evasion of cigarette taxes

[trickyguy]

89. If this happens, it will be a disaster to many, many Americans. So sad.

[joost5]

96. This should be top of mind for Dems in congress. This is a four alarm fire

that will hurt rural red Republicans just as much as Dems.

[bucolic_frolic]

97. Local PO installed plexiglass over retail window

with a cutout for payment processor, and you can pass mail through an opening in the bottom. Same type window at a supermarket checkout today too.

In my view they should reduce delivery until June 1 to 2-3 days a week. They prob wouldn't want to go there because Republicans would want to make it permanent.