Monday, August 17, 2020

Signs Keep Pointing To "Yes"


Is Trump actually withholding funding from the USPS?  Or threatening to veto the bill the House passed which included funding for USPS because of lost revenue due to the coronavirus? The answer to both questions seems to be:  yes.

In recent months, the continued success of package delivery and substantial increases in package volume the agency is processing over 2019 levels has helped soften the blow of the sharp decline in first-class mail and improved the agency's financial outlook.

The significant decline in Americans using the Postal Service due to the pandemic accelerated the years-long reductions in first-class mail volume, which has fallen by over 30% in the past decade, and only exacerbated existing financial woes which were caused in part by Congress.

The Postal Service is especially burdened by 2006 federal legislation, the Postal Enhancement and Accountability Act, that required it to prefund all current and former employee retirement and health benefits in advance as opposed to a "pay as you go" system. The service saw its annual net losses double to $8.8 billion in 2019, and it currently has $160 billion in unfunded liabilities to those pre-paid pension and health plan obligations, according to the Washington Post.

The Postal Service now projects that it will run out of money by April 2021 if package volume returns to pre-pandemic levels and by October 2021 if package volume stays at 15% above pre-pandemic levels, Federal News Network reported.

The sharp reduction in mail delivery caused by the pandemic initially threatened to plunge the agency into even more dire straits, with the Postal Service reporting $2.2 billion in net losses in 2020's third quarter.

Trump, who has been hostile to the idea of expanding vote by mail, is opposed to any measures to help the Post Office. He has refused to sign the CARES Act stimulus package if it included a bailout for the agency, The Washington Post reported in April.

While the stimulus bill extended the Postal Service greater flexibility to borrow up to $10 billion from the federal government subject to Treasury Department approval, it didn't extend the agency any emergency government funding or forgive $11 billion in outstanding debt to Treasury, two of the measures that congressional Democrats called for.

The Post reported that while Congress initially came to an agreement on giving the Postal Service a $13 billion grant, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin quashed the grant, telling lawmakers, "You can have a loan, or you can have nothing at all." 
The current Postmaster General has no experience with mail delivery, but ignorance is strength, right?

In remarks to the Postal Service Board of Governors, DeJoy has emphasized that he's committed to keep providing timely mail delivery, including of election mail, while warning that "without timely legislative and regulatory reform, we will be forced to take aggressive measures to cut costs and bridge the divide." 
I suspect he's gonna go to the House and tell 'em to pound sand, that he's large and in charge, and understands "business," which "politicians" do not.  Yeah, about that:

Bennett's examples cover Indiana, Texas, Tennessee, California, Michigan, Missouri, and Maryland.  Trump is doing a good job pissing off the entire country.  Meanwhile, he still thinks mail is for me, not for thee:

Somebody wanna tell him fuckin' up the mail for anybody fucks up the mail for everybody?  Or is this part of his genius strategy to claim a "rigged election"?  The answer, again, is "Yes."


I grew up on the adage that to get a cow's attention, you sometimes had to hit it between the eyes with a 2 x 4. I don't think it was literally true, but the metaphor often plays out in real life:
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)