Politicizing the post office

[struggle4progress]

by Harvest Prude
Posted 4/16/20, 04:11 pm

... Last week, Postmaster General Megan Brennan warned Congress that the U.S. Postal Service — saddled with $160 billion in debt — faces bankruptcy this fall. She said consumers should prepare for service interruptions, and employees should brace for missed paychecks. Brennan predicted the federal agency would lose about $13 billion in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The USPS is in deep trouble … but the blame is not theirs mainly,” said Chris Edwards, tax policy director for the CATO Institute. “The blame is on Congress, who won’t let it make the reforms that it wants to make.”

Some lawmakers sought to insert $25 billion for the Postal Service in the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package. But the Trump administration warned a bailout would act as a “poison pill,” and President Donald Trump wouldn’t sign the bill into law. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the Postal Service could have a loan or nothing, so the relief bill passed with a provision giving the agency permission to borrow $10 billion ...

https://world.wng.org/content/politicizing_the_post_office

[struggle4progress]

1. USPS needs help now

By DAVID MARTIN DAVIES • 12 HOURS AGO

... If the Travis County district court judge's order is upheld, Paxton will be overruled and all of the state's approximately 16 million registered voters would be eligible to apply for an absentee ballot ...

Without a fully functioning post office system – it will be difficult at best to have a mail-in ballot election.

And the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak in the United States has plunged the U.S. Postal Service into dire financial straits, as more Americans than ever rely on post offices to deliver necessary medicine and supplies, especially in underserved rural areas.

But the Washington Post has reported that President Donald Trump is opposed to any measures to help the Post Office and refused to sign the CARES Act stimulus package if it included a bailout for the agency ...

https://www.tpr.org/post/texas-matters-voting-mail-how-save-post-office-and-nonprofits-max-out

[struggle4progress]

2. Refusal to save USPS an attack on voting rights.

By RICHARD L. HASEN
APRIL 14, 20203:38 PM

All the plans we have for a safe and legitimate general election in November depend heavily upon the ability to expand vote by mail. Yet those plans would be completely upended if the United States Postal Service collapses, a ridiculous but real possibility thanks to COVID-19 and President Donald Trump’s opposition to a postal service bailout as part of the federal government’s pandemic response. In every election but especially this year, the USPS is critical government infrastructure for our elections. With poll workers getting sick, in-person polling places shutting down, and an expected flood of absentee ballot requests, a functioning postal service is essential to the health and safety of American democracy. We cannot let USPS collapse.

Democrats and Republicans are battling over whether Congress should mandate expanded vote by mail in November. The president—who regularly votes by mail—has raised unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud connected to the practice. Congress so far has provided $400 million to election officials nationwide for COVID-19 related expenses, although the necessary price tag may be $2 billion ...

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/november-election-post-office-bailout.html

[msongs]

3. democrats introduce bill to save post office....just kidding lol nt

[cayugafalls]

4. So we can bailout the corporate cronies, but not the Post Office.

Got it.

They are going to let it sink and strip the retirement money and sell to highest bidder.

[struggle4progress]

5. Situation dire

APR. 17, 2020
By Sarah Jones

... Postal workers deliver medicines and toiletries; in states that allow voting by mail, they help democracy function. But the economic crisis created by the novel coronavirus has dealt a serious blow to the USPS, and the Trump administration isn’t prepared to help. The recent stimulus package omitted any assistance for the USPS, which employs over 600,000 people ...

How dire is the financial situation right now?

First, the post office is a non-taxpayer-funded public institution and they derive their revenue strictly from postal postage and postal services. There’s no other revenue coming from any other way. And they have an essential mission, really amplified by this crisis, to serve everybody in the country, no matter who we are and where we live. It’s called the universal service obligation. They deliver to 160 million addresses, six days a week, sometimes seven now, plus the process that gets mail to and from those addresses.

The very pandemic that’s reminding the public that postal workers are essential workers, getting medicines to homes as well as packages and so on, is causing a severe economic impact on the postal service itself. Package revenue is picking up because some people are ordering from home, but how long that lasts is subject to discretionary spending, and people have massive unemployment. This in no way makes up for the loss of advertising mail and other sorts of mail. The revenue will likely drop 40 to 50 percent. Some of these estimates are guesstimates, but they’re guesstimates based on what’s already happening. The situation is absolutely dire. The post office will likely run out of money sometime between July and September ...

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/will-republicans-help-the-coronavirus-kill-the-post-office.html