Trump: Amazon 'scam' costing Postal Service 'billions'

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill




BY MAX GREENWOOD - 03/31/18 09:23 AM EDT

President Trump lashed out at Amazon on Saturday, accusing the retail giant of scamming the U.S. Postal Service over shipping costs and evading taxes.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

The president has ramped up his attacks on the retail giant in recent days, repeating concerns he voiced on the campaign trail about the company's business practices, particularly as they relate to the U.S. Postal Service.

He has called on the agency to raise shipping rates for Amazon. Parcel delivery has become an increasingly important business for the Postal Service amid long-running declines in its first class mail service.

Despite the gains in its parcel delivery service, the agency has not been able to make up the losses from declines in its mail delivery business. Last year, the Postal Service reported a loss of $2.7 billion and revenue of $69.6 billion.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/381092-trump-amazon-scam-costing-postal-service-billions

---

Trump claims Washington Post is 'lobbyist' for Amazon

BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 03/31/18 09:09 AM EDT

President Trump on Saturday claimed that The Washington Post is a “lobbyist” for Amazon.

Trump made the claim during a pair of tweets railing against Amazon, whose owner Jeff Bezos the president has repeatedly criticized. Earlier this week, Trump also hit Amazon for "putting many thousands of retailers out of business."

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

The Post is owned by Bezos. However, the Post and Amazon are two separate entities.

This isn’t the first time that Trump has accused the Post of lobbying on behalf of Amazon — he called the newspaper a “lobbyist weapon” for the company in July.

Trump has often criticized the newspaper and other media outlets over their coverage of his administration, referring to them as “fake news.”

###

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/381089-trump-claims-washington-post-is-lobbyist-for-amazon

[unblock]

1. breaking news!! donald trump calls for hike in postage rates!!

[dameatball]

2. There goes my annual card from Grandma...:(

[dameatball]

3. Actually I had read someplace where Amazon paid zero in federal taxes in 2017.

The article claimed it was part of their business model and did not address state and local as I recall.

[moosewhisperer]

12. Cheeto can partially blame his tax cuts for that

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2018/mar/29/facts-donald-trump-amazon-taxes-usps-retail/

[GreenEyedLefty]

13. They post losses every year I believe so there is no income to tax.

Not that I'm defending them... but what makes this oh, so rich is that orange asshole more than likely plays the same game.

[dameatball]

35. Yes, he has admitted in the past that he goes in the hole, takes a loss and moves on.

[paleotn]

33. Amazon's net margins are notoriously low...

compared to others in their sector. Some of that is due to their business model,..very low prices...shipping discounts...Prime...etc., and the fact that they farm much of their income back into growing the business and expanding new offerings and services. Amazon is still run like a growth company, with investor returns coming from share price appreciation and zero from dividends. Last I saw, their bottom line margin was like 1.7%. With today's corporate tax code, it's not all that difficult to pay zero taxes when your net profit margins are that low.

[sinkingfeeling]

40. Then they must be very smart, according to Agolf Twitler.

[Sunlei]

43. The retailers who sell items on Amazon are who pays Federal*income tax* on sales.

Amazon does pay state taxes, property taxes and/or leasing for warehouse sites. They also hire thousands of sorting & delivery people. Hire many local delivery people, and use the US Post Office for some package delivery services (items drop shipped from supplier) even on Sundays.

[FakeNoose]

44. Sales tax goes to the state where the company makes their sale

There would be no federal tax on a retail sale anyway. What is Cheeto even talking about?

The cost of delivery is a matter of contract pricing between Amazon and the Postal Service, not something that the customers are privy to. If I order something from Amazon and they tell me I have to pay $x.xx for shipping, I pay it. I don't get to negotiate that. The sales tax is added right onto the invoice, and I don't get to negotiate that either.

Federal taxes - if they are owed - are something the retail companies declare and pay on their own. This would be true whether I order from Amazon, or shop in any local brick-and-mortar store.

Once again Cheeto is completely out to lunch on this. I hope he plays golf for the rest of the week.

[Sunlei]

49. as was stated long ago by one of USAs Statesmen, the Republicans president is a "Bullshitter"

[greymattermom]

4. Breaking news!

Trump calls for increased business taxes!

[Scruffy1]

5. The rule of ignorance continues.

The US Postal Service rates are set by the Postal Commission, not the USPS and the USPS has not beeen part of the US government since 1973. As far as the cost per package I don't think anyone can give a solid answer. The way I look at it is that the sortation and shipping costs are virtually nothing since the existing Distribution Centers can probably handle the volume without even working more hours and the letter carriers are already delivering the route anyway. The only additional cost I see is for Sunday delivery, which may involve double time pay for letter carriers.

[dalton99a]

6. There must be a big indictment coming down next week

[Justice]

9. or a powerful story the WP is about to break

[dalton99a]

11. Yep.

As president he has eyes and ears and often gets a heads-up from prosecutors as well as friendlies

[MiniMe]

7. Amazon is keeping the USPS in business

Amazon isn't taking money away from the USPS, they are paying for their services

[forgotmylogin]

30. Exactly.

Amazon collects sales tax in any state where they have a physical distribution center (I used to never pay sales tax on orders, but now I do). Also, the Post Office I'm sure has discounted bulk rates for many companies. I believe Netflix does this by pre-sorting mailers by region/zip code for the P.O., which saves them a good deal of handling work.

Amazon offers free shipping on specific items or certain orders over a specific amount because it's good business. They're absorbing the cost of regular shipping unless the customer wants it expedited. They also are paying for 2-day shipping if the customer subscribes to Prime.

[Flaleftist]

8. Raise rates just for Amazon?

The buyer ends up paying shipping. So why should I pay more for shipping if I buy from Amazon rather than an independent seller on EBay?

[subterranean]

17. No, the rates would rise for everyone.

Another increase in postal rates would hurt small, independent sellers on eBay and other platforms more than it would hurt Amazon. Of course, as you say, consumers would end up paying for it. There goes my "tax cut!"

[paleotn]

36. I don't think they can do that...

raise rates on just Amazon and not other, similar businesses. I might be wrong, but that smacks of a bill of attainder, prohibited by the Constitution. I know Congress can't pass legislation punishing specific entities without due process. Might that also apply to pricing practices of the USPS? Maybe our resident legal scholars can clarify.

[groundloop]

10. 45* accusing Amazon of evading taxes.... now THAT'S rich.

[Cha]

48. 45IQ nm

[Justice]

14. Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 requires pretending pension obligations for 75 yrs

The Postal Service does not live off dollars collected as taxes. Postage fees are to cover costs.

The Hill article below gives all of "right wing reasons" why USPS is losing money but substantial portion of its losses are because of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006.

http://thehill.com/opinion/finance/368753-theres-more-than-one-reason-the-postal-service-is-losing-money

Reasons include decline in first class mail. Lower revenues.

In 2018, 500,000 employees, which is 300,000 than it did a few decades ago but have 600,000 retirees who receive health and pension benefits. Compensation costs increased $2 billion since 2015.

But another MAJOR reasons for losses is 2006 - Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which requires the USPS to prefund retiree health benefits 75 years into the future and to pay all of that money between 2007 and 2017.

Payment is about $5 billion a year. The USPS put $44 billion into the account - then started losing money and could not pay any more.

[7962]

16. Is ANY other company, corp, or whatever, forced to pre-fund at that level?

THATS why the PO has been in such financial straits. Although I think they've been doing better lately but still; 75 years is ridiculous

[duforsure]

18. Exactly right,

And Trump costs the American taxpayers trillions, but he doesn't want people to think about that. He wants to privatize the Postal Service, and anything else that they can get their greedy hands on for control and power. He wants to exact his revenge onto Amazon, that's all this is. Like Putin he'll try to criminalize them like he is trying to do to Hillary now.

[OnlinePoker]

22. Would you rather have unfunded pensions like corporations and states now run?

States can borrow to repay the pensions, but if a corporation goes down and the pensions are unfunded, it's the pensioners that lose out. It may be severe pain for the post office, but it protects retired workers in the long run.

[7962]

26. it doesnt need to be 75 YEARS to protect the workers.

Sure, force other companies to do the same and watch how many go under the next day.

[Demit]

41. 75 years out. They're paying for pensions for people not even born yet.

[MichMan]

25. The bill requiring pension funding passed overwhelmingly by both parties

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10022335782

[duforsure]

15. Coming from the serial liar

And person who pays zero Federal taxes yearly, gets huge tax breaks on his properties, and lies more than any 100 politicians put together, wants us to believe his BS. This is all about his going after rich company owners that don't bow down to him, and won't promote his propaganda in their newspapers. He abuses his powers to go after these types , and to hurt their bottom line, and maybe rob them eventually like Putin's done in Russia. Congress (the GOP) if they were doing their jobs would put a stop to him doing this, but they have done nothing. Voting in Democrats to replace them would stop this from happening, over and over again. He won't stop with Amazon, and will use the DOJ as his personal toy to try and criminalize them with, again like with going after Hillary, and others. All just like Putin has done.

[Maeve]

19. Three Pinocchios

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/03/30/president-trumps-bundle-of-faulty-claims-about-amazons-cost-to-taxpayers/?utm_term=.547bc8203cc5

"E-commerce deliveries are one of the post office’s few thriving lines of business."

[noneof_theabove]

20. Time to end the current tax scam...

Yes, it is! Designed for the ultra-rich and against everyone else.

Spread the word to you congress-critters to enact FIETS...

Only one way to fix the taxes.

When the Dems get back power they must immediately institute the Federal Ingress Egress Tax System [ FIETS ]. I will try to keep this simple as most people do not understand numbers beyond 3 times their pay check, including the "richies", that are running this fleecing of America.

Ingress = coming in
Egress = going out

On each end there this is only 1 transaction, true creators like Monsanto, they create seeds to sell, no ingress, literally, and the end consumer that buys a steak, cooks it and poof it is gone, no egress.

There is between 5 and 15 trillion dollars per day that pass through the banking system, ingress and egress, and it varies anyway.

So for easy numbers I will use 2% of each transaction both in and out totaling 4% for any entity, corporation or person. No homes, children, big money wall streets pay, congress, president, EVERYONE PAYS, Bill Gates, Mark Zukerburg, Warren Buffet, etc. When you sell [in money] or buy [out money] that is a transaction and tax applies. So when your employer cuts your pay check there is 2% [out], when your check is cashed/deposited [in] there is 2%. The grocery store pays 2% when they get stuff [in] and you pay 2% when you take stuff home [out].

Simple so far?

Now the number, and I will use the conservative 5 Trillion $5,000,000,000,000 per day 5 days a week 52 weeks a year.

$5,000,000,000,000 * 0.04 [4% the 2% + 2%] = $100,000,000,000 [100 billion] per day.
times 5 days a week = $500,000,000,000 [500 billion] per week
time 52 weeks a year = $26,000,000,000,000 [26 trillion per year]

The National Debt is $17 Trillion = GONE. Well we will work the on it using left over funds.

Current 2017 budget from federal-budget.insidegov.com [http://federal-budget.insidegov.com/l/120/2017-Estimate] is Income $3.21T expenditure $3.65T for a -2.6% increase in deficit.
Update 13 Feb 2018, Trump put forth a 4.4 Trillion budget, more military less civil, but THIS SYSTEM WORKS FOR ALL.

So $26T - $3.65T = $22.35T SURPLUS.

Not exactly as this now PAYS FOR EVERYTHING.

Full education for all [at least a bachelor, maybe master/phd for those that approve their worth say for doctors, teachers, etc or full Vo-Tech for welders/truck drivers don't need the extended education].
+++++++
Full basic medical for all. [hospital, doctors, pharma but you want the optional botox then you pay a negotiated price that is listed just like prices at McDonald's and stores].
+++++++
Excellent military with FULL BENEFITS to retirees and vets.
+++++++
Social Security is fully funded and solvent at a living amount and adjusted yearly for new cost of living [mainly food/housing as medical is covered].
+++++++
Infrastructure to fix deadly bridges and new mass transit.
+++++++
Get us on non-fossil energy but f*ck that expensive nuclear, there is better less expensive used in submarines and destroyers.
+++++++
NO MORE F*CKING 1040 FORMS AND 35,000 PAGES OF TAX CODE !

I used to have 22-24% pulled from paycheck and got back a few hundred for about 19% on April 15. Yes, 4% and no paper work, that's a real raise of 15% not congressional vodoo magic numbers.
+++++++
this is all encompassing and in 3-5 years the debt is gone.

A fractional amount could be included [maybe not needed] that would be allocated to the states, regions, cities instead of sales tax.

Is this doable, YES.
Sorry H&R BLOCK and lower level IRS and tax lawyers. Thank for your prior services as you are no longer needed in the digital age.
The upper level IRS remains to monitor the banking system and "collect" the payments [ok the banking system could keep a small fee say 1-4% gross to cover expenses, computers, etc]

NOTE: transaction percent could be adjusted yearly, 6 months, or 3 months to reflect the overall system status.

NOTE: I wap3 do hearby mark my Intellectual Property Rights for the FIETS, Federal Ingress Egress Tax System concept, use without my permission is forbidden. [K.I.S.S. Legal Stuff]

[mahatmakanejeeves]

34. What is your answer for the person who replied to the same post at Soylentnews in January?

Re:Question presumes the goal (Score: 3, Interesting)

by noneof_theabove (6189) on Saturday January 20, @10:56PM (#625378)

....
When the Dems get back power they must immediately institute the Federal Ingress Egress Tax System [ FIETS ©wap3 ]. I will try to keep this simple as most people do not understand numbers beyond 3 times their pay check, including the "richies", that are running this fleecing of America.

Ingress = coming in
Egress = going out

On each end there this is only 1 transaction, true creators like Monsanto, they create seeds to sell, no ingress, literally, and the end consumer that buys a steak, cooks it and poof it is gone, no egress.

{snip, due to length}

worse than a VAT (Score: 2, Insightful)
by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20, @11:38PM (#625398)

Suppose your business purchases passenger jets, paints them to order, and then sells them. Each jet costs you $300 million, and you sell it for $310 million.

With VAT: You pay a percentage of $10 million, perhaps 30%. So $300,000 tax.

With this: You pay 2% of $300 million, and then 2% of $310 million. So $12,200,000 tax.

This thing, for the given business, is more than 40 times worse. Of course, no matter what kind of tax is imposed, businesses will restructure their operations to minimize it. In this case, the aircraft would simply never be sold by the manufacturer. They would lease it. That way, subsequent sales wouldn't get taxed again and again on the full value of the aircraft.

Re:worse than a VAT (Score: 3, Insightful)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 21, @12:04AM (#625411)

"With VAT: You pay a percentage of $10 million, perhaps 30%. So $300,000 tax.
With this: You pay 2% of $300 million, and then 2% of $310 million. So $12,200,000 tax."

That's what the parent is trying to hide. The fact that under his small 2% rate, the cost for EVERYTHING will skyrocket. There's no way someone will buy and paint a jet with just a 10 million upgrade on the price in the new system. You would expect them to sell it at 330 million or more, minimum. The exact same thing happens with the groceries you buy, which in most sane countries not taxed at all (except junk food etc), the cost of the ingress tax will be passed along to the person paying the egress tax in the form of an increased price tag.

The bottom line is greed. The producers will not accept the additional cost. It will be passed along to the final consumer.

I'm not saying tax reform is long overdue (And in the opposite direction Trump pointed it in recently) but any new system that magically creates trillions of tax dollars DEFINITELY has a price that the consumer will pay in full. What you need is to close off ALL tax loopholes used by the rich (personal and business).

[DesertRat]

21. Easter weekend

Link to tweet

[rickford66]

23. FedEx and UPS are the real winners here.

Since they don't have to stop by your home 6 days a week, they just dump their undelivered packages at the local post office and thus save money. If they had to follow the USPS daily routes to see if there's packages to pick up, they'd be out of business. Also, they aren't forced to fund pensions for unborn employees. My rural carrier stops at my mailbox 6 days a week to see if I have mail to go out.

[FakeNoose]

45. As I understand it, the Postal Service actually WANTS this business

UPS and Fedex don't want it, so they're happy to partner with the Postal Service.
It's actually win-win for all of them, and Cheeto should just shut up.
Or else he should maybe learn something before he tweets.

[rickford66]

47. Put USPS out of business and a 1st class letter will cost $10

[NOMOGOP]

24. U.S.P.S.

U.S.P.S., I believe, is largest, if not among the very largest employers in this country. The Republikkkans have been trying to privatize for decades. This is why U.S.P.S. is required to pay into pensions for employees it HASN'T EVEN HIRED YET. This was an effort to bankrupt them. When I need to ship, first choice, U.S.P.S.

[Frustratedlady]

32. And, what would happen to that pension surplus/savings acct. if the USPS was privatized?

You can bet that they'd figure out some way to cut or end the pension plan.

[MountCleaners]

27. He's really just pandering to his base...

...who are phobic about anything LARGE, like extremely large and powerful corporations.

Goes with the whole conspiracist paranoid populist schtick.

Funny how he hasn't attacked Facebook - that's because Facebook helped him and facilitates communication between his nutso III%-er type following. But big corporations, big government, "globalists", billionaires who aren't him - all stuff his following is paranoid about.

[Eliot Rosewater]

28. You need to be in prison, bub. Shut the fuck up, you are a traitor

[videohead5]

29. Everything I get from Amazon

Is delivered by their own delivery trucks now.they use to ship stuff by USPS to me but not anymore.

[The Wizard]

31. At long last

Why does anyone take the Orange Curse seriously. Everything changes once the lying starts.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

37. The article in this morning's Fake Washington Post

Trump accuses Amazon of ‘Post Office scam,’ falsely says The Post is company’s lobbyist

By Philip Rucker March 31 at 9:22 AM

[e-mail]

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump escalated his assault on Amazon.com on Saturday, accusing the online retail giant of a “Post Office scam” and falsely stating that The Washington Post operates as a lobbyist for Amazon.

In a pair of morning tweets sent during his drive from his Mar-a-Lago estate to the nearby Trump International Golf Club, the president argued that Amazon costs the U.S. Postal Service billions of dollars in potential revenue. ... Trump has repeatedly advanced this theory, even though officials have explained to him that Amazon’s contracts with the Postal Service are profitable for the agency.

{Fact Checker: Trump’s bundle of faulty claims about Amazon’s cost to taxpayers}

The president also incorrectly conflated Amazon with The Post and made clear that his attacks on the retailer were inspired by his disdain for the newspaper’s coverage. He labeled the newspaper “the Fake Washington Post” and demanded it register as a lobbyist for Amazon. The Post operates independently of Amazon, though the news organization is personally owned by Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.
....

The Post on Friday afternoon published online an exhaustive account of the Trump Organization’s finances “under unprecedented assault” because of three different legal inquiries: Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation; the $130,000 payment to secure the silence of adult-film actress Stormy Daniels after her alleged sexual encounter with Trump; and lawsuits alleging that Trump is improperly accepting gifts, or “emoluments,” from foreign or state governments through his businesses.
....

Abha Bhattarai in Washington contributed to this report.

Philip Rucker is the White House bureau chief for The Washington Post. He previously has covered Congress, the Obama White House, and the 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns. He joined The Post in 2005 as a local news reporter.
Follow @PhilipRucker

[paleotn]

38. But, but, but....

I thought paying no taxes was "smart"? I'm sure the cognitive dissonance of his deplorable scum will skip right over that fact.

[sinkingfeeling]

39. He couldn't run his own businesses at a profit, but thinks he can tell other

companies how to do it.

[SWBTATTReg]

42. When Amazon announces where their new ...

headquarters will be at, I guarantee you that lots of tRUMP voters will be lining up to get the jobs Amazon touted to the press (50,000 is the number I heard). tRUMP is a liar and a joke, and has lost all credibility. Period. Nothing else to say.

[FrodosNewPet]

46. On the bright side...

They might use Amazon Flex drivers and other local providers if USPS becomes more expensive?