US Postal Service is on track to run out of money by June

[struggle4progress]

... And as the coronavirus crisis has pushed over a dozen states to postpone their presidential primaries, move to conduct them entirely by mail, or both, the Postal Service's lack of funding could impact ongoing and upcoming 2020 elections by harming states' efforts to expand absentee voting and vote-by-mail.

House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney and Rep. Gerry Conolly, who runs the subcommittee that oversees the Postal Service, sounded the alarm that the agency could run out of funding altogether by June if Congress doesn't act soon ...

https://www.businessinsider.com/postal-service-funding-crisis-could-harm-voting-by-mail-coronavirus-2020-4

[DarthDem]

1. An obvious must-include for the next stimulus package

No way the Democrats - or even the Republicans - let the Postal Service fail.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. On the contrary, Repugs would LOVE for it to fail, so PS can be turned over to private industry.

This has been an Uglican wet dream for YEARS.

[CaptYossarian]

5. That won't help their rural base.

Actually, I'm OK with that. The GOP has a good chance of turning their states blue if we sit back and watch.

[KatyMan]

6. Wouldn't that take a constitutional amendment? N/T

[DarthDem]

8. No

They might do everything they can to hurt the USPS so that private competitors with nice bank accounts to contribute to them can flourish - and they have done so - but they can't afford to let the USPS fail due to the massive, massive public blowback that would result. And there are Constitutional implications as well.

[SheltieLover]

3. Is this the backup plan in case of vote by mail?

Shitstain was pushing privatization of usps some time ago, if memory serves. Yet another dynamic of our society he has destroyed.

[ElementaryPenguin]

4. Our attitude that Postal SERVICE must turn a PROFIT has ALWAYS BEEN INSANE!!

What profits do traffic lights turn?

THEY'RE A NECESSITY!!!

[CaptYossarian]

7. The cameras turn the profits.

Depending on race, age, and last name--not in any order.

[ooky]

9. This is why we need an alternative solution to mail, and I fully expect

Trump to try to shutter the Post Office right at election time. We need to develop and adopt a blank ballot with section that identifies the voter, that voters can fill out at home and manually place in a drop box that is monitored by election officials.

[shockey80]

10. Trump lied about the post office yesterday. Surprise, surprise.

The post office has not been losing billions of dollars because they delver packages for companies like amazon. They have been losing billions of dollars because of a pre-funding healthcare mandate forced upon them by Congress years ago.

[Frustratedlady]

11. Didn't they also make them set aside billions/year for the retirement fund...many years ahead?

I can't remember the details, but it was incredibly high.

[appalachiablue]

13. They did, during Bush II. The USPS was made to pre-fund retirement

Last edited Thu Apr 9, 2020, 01:32 PM - Edit history (1)

benefits for 75 years, decades out -- before many workers were even born, just to hamstring their operations so they could then say, 'they're broke, shut them down' - and privatize the service for profit. The USPS employees union has been targeted by the opposition for years too.

[LastDemocratInSC]

12. Correct.

[customerserviceguy]

14. Raise the price of sending junk mail

and keep doing that until the USPS is in the black.

Nobody uses FedEx or UPS to send unsolicited advertising, why do we subsidize the distribution of trash by fossil fueled vehicles?