White House rejects bailout for U.S. Postal Service battered by coronavirus
Source: Washington Post
Through rain, sleet, hail, and even a pandemic, mail carriers serve every address in the United States, but the coronavirus crisis is shaking the foundation of the U.S. Postal Service in new and dire ways.
The Postal Services decades-long financial troubles have worsened dramatically as the volume of the kind of mail that pays the agencys bills ― first-class and marketing mail ― withers during the pandemic. The USPS needs an infusion of money, and President Trump has blocked potential emergency funding for the agency that employs around 600,000 workers, repeating instead the false claim that higher rates for Internet shipping companies Amazon, FedEx and UPS would right the services budget.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/11/post-office-bailout-trump/
hlthe2b
(101,699 posts)and every day I am (unpleasantly) surprised.
iluvtennis
(19,756 posts)Guilded Lilly
(5,591 posts)Walleye
(30,697 posts)machoneman
(3,951 posts)tirebiter
(2,520 posts)Theres 1 1/2.
kairos12
(12,817 posts)for sure.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,773 posts)Eliot Rosewater
(31,096 posts)We dont play hard ball enough, not one person in this country should be anything but beside themselves furious at the GOP for all of what is happening...
But only half of us are and that half cant figure out how to play REAL hardball, make them AFRAID to steal more elections.
How is above my pay grade but our LIVES are on the line...
DownriverDem
(6,205 posts)Many folks still get their bills via the mail.
Kaiserguy
(740 posts)if he lets the Post Office die. Voting by mail will be difficult . Both Trump and the GOP don't want vote by mail. They will of course offer a private company a contract to deliver the mail and it will be a Republican run company and you can bet that when it comes to vote by mail a lot of our votes will get lost.
olddad65
(599 posts)Trumputin is a cheap imitation of Hitler.
John Fante
(3,479 posts)would take care of trumps little problem with mail in ballots.
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)machoneman
(3,951 posts)Go President Biden!
Progressive Jones
(6,011 posts)The GOP has been going after the USPS for decades.
The real big hit was the pension legislation in 2006.
The USPS is forced to fund their pension fund for 75 years out.
They are forced to fund the pensions of future employees who aren't even born yet.
This is what eats up a lot of revenue. Mail is now slower due the COVID-19 pandemic, so there is even less revenue to work with.
The USPS doesn't operate on tax dollars, as some believe.
The House recently passed legislation to end this practice, but that won't go anywhere in the Senate at this time.
Trump/GOP is about to piss off 600,000 more Americans by fucking with their income.
CrispyQ
(36,221 posts)That's the plan. The cost of mailing letters and packages will go up and service will go down and rural America will be hurt the worst and they will still vote for Trump because hate radio tells them to.
DENVERPOPS
(8,677 posts)Republicon wet dream......destroying a huge union........
mzmolly
(50,957 posts)Fuckers.
HuskyOffset
(885 posts)The Wizard
(12,482 posts)mitch96
(13,816 posts)The post office is getting screwed by a law that congress passed and THATS why they are in trouble..
the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA), which some have taken to calling "the most insane law" ever passed by Congress. The law requires the Postal Service, which receives no taxpayer subsidies, to prefund its retirees' health benefits up to the year 2056. This is a $5 billion per year cost;
Fed Ex and UPS don't have to do this so the P.O. is starting out behind the 8 ball... Screwed from the get go..
m
dugog55
(296 posts)Both houses of Congress were controlled by Republicans, and I read that the poison pill part you mentioned was passed in a lame duck session at the end of the year by voice vote. So apparently there are no records of voting. But the Republicans have been pushing to eliminate the Post Office for years so their wealthy pals can cash in on that business.
Evolve Dammit
(16,632 posts)Nay
(12,051 posts)LakeArenal
(28,713 posts)If that doesnt affect trumpsters they will never see their best interests.
bluestarone
(16,720 posts)Somehow somebody please end this nightmare!
question everything
(47,263 posts)Ten years ago, we has to mail our census responses, now it is online..
dragonlady
(3,577 posts)It would hurry up the demise of the post office.
brewens
(13,392 posts)voice. Show the worlds friendliest, most cheerful mail carriers, talking to old ladies, giving dogs treats, bringing packages in the snow wearing Santa hats. I think it could blow up on him. Look for them to back down and approve funding.
Squinch
(50,773 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(48,773 posts)jimfields33
(15,450 posts)I think they are a very affordable vacation for a family of 4. Mail we get once a week. We have to go pick it up a mile away. At the very least Saturday delivery could be stopped. Even democratic supports have mentioned that.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,773 posts)jimfields33
(15,450 posts)I alway vote in person. I feel like I really voted and I can make sure the vote is done. I dont want my ballot stick in some post office some where like in Wisconsin and Miami Florida. Just two times we know of.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,773 posts)When I ask about a Postal Service it is a service that serves the nation. I think the nation benefits from a Postal Service.
A destroyed Postal Service is much harder to resurrect than a collapsed cruise industry.
jimfields33
(15,450 posts)Dont start adding caveats that you thought of after asking your question to me. Makes it seem very lazy and dishonest.
Skittles
(152,963 posts)you just do not know
jimfields33
(15,450 posts)hangaleft
(649 posts)Republican I got mine-ism.
First it was unions and their health care plans. Now this.
No further comment.
True Blue American
(17,972 posts)What I was thinking. Millions of people depend on the Postal Service every day. To pay bills,get checks. Many do not have computer service in rural areas.
I heard that Mnuchin told them if they got a bailout it would earn loan.
Daryl Issa is the lousy jerk that slipped the year prepayment pension in.
. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-04-04/congress-not-amazon-messed-up-the-u-s-postal-service
True Blue American
(17,972 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(48,773 posts)I replied to the Original Poster with what most people would consider a general question directed broadly.
If it was specific to anyone, the only interpretation would be specific to the OP.
It's fine you answered. I redirected it back to the broader consideration implicit in my post. But, ... you want to make it all about you.
And then you get huffy and respond with ad hominem attacks.
yellowdogintexas
(22,114 posts)I believe these are serviced only by election employees. I think Oregon also has them
I can look on the VAN and see who in my precinct has returned their ballot.
PatrickforO
(14,514 posts)Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006.
It was a Republican attempt to put the postal union out of business by starving the post office of revenue. Basically what it did is force the USPS to make a $5.5 billion payment EACH YEAR for 20 years to its retiree health care fund.
US Postal Service workers have a retiree health care benefit in addition to their pension. Before Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, the USPS, like EVERY SINGLE PRIVATE SECTOR COMPANY THAT STILL EVEN HAS PENSIONS, operated under a pay-as-you-go model for retiree health care funding.
The PAEA law holds them to a higher standard THAN PRETTY MUCH EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD. While the mealy-mouthed thieving Republicans solemnly intone that this is good because enough money is saved over the course of a career that the benefit is fully paid for by the time the worker retires, But let's look at what that really does.
Congressional Republicans want to privatize everything possible, and this includes the USPS. First of all, they don't like the union. It irks the Republicans that the public employee unions are sort of the 'last man standing' after decades-long efforts to bust unions beginning with the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in the late 1940s, and accelerating with the snake Reagan.
So they got this great idea: Hey, lets FORCE the USPS to pay $5.5 BILLION a year into a health-care pension fund. That will STARVE them for revenue and force them to go insolvent. We can then privatize the USPS so it is 'competitive' along with the other big delivery services.
Problem is the USPS is CHEAP. Much, much cheaper than UPS or FEDEX. So Republicans in Congress are starving the USPS of revenue so that they can publicly lie about how the USPS can't manage its business and is losing money, so gotta privatize! Because, hey, the private sector can ALWAYS do it better, faster and cheaper, right?
So, you may have some personal preferences around taking a cruise and voting in person. Fine.
But these workers are getting screwed by Republicans and their corporate owners just like American workers have been since the bloody labor wars in the late 19th century. The real death knell for unions, to my mind, was the Sedition Act passed in 1918 at the behest of Wall Street greed lizards for the purpose of defeating the unions, which were winning. That's why they threw Eugene Debs in prison. To break the union so greed-heads could make more profits at the expense of workers.
True Blue American
(17,972 posts)Once a week! How often do you take your family on a Cruise?
turbinetree
(24,631 posts)IronLionZion
(45,250 posts)because no one wants to pay the exorbitant prices for his trashy hotels even before COVID. $9 for a Bud Light.
turbinetree
(24,631 posts)maybe that's the reason why he can't break the lease.................
elleng
(130,126 posts)IronLionZion
(45,250 posts)Tell Trump that Hillary used emails because she didn't like the postal service.
keithbvadu2
(36,360 posts)Yet his hotels qualify for stimulus bailout?
Rebl2
(13,301 posts)in rural areas love the post office-kind of a gathering place except not right now.
The only reason they have money problems is the ridiculous amount of money Congress makes them pay up front for retirees far, far into the future. No private company does this. Also there is no way FedEx or UPS are going to deliver your mail.
safeinOhio
(32,523 posts)Charge five bucks to deliver a letter.
rocktivity
(44,555 posts)and for the same reason why he's against mail-in voting in November.
rocktivity
2naSalit
(86,031 posts)ashredux
(2,593 posts)Is he really a Putin agent?
badseedboy
(174 posts)summer_in_TX
(2,680 posts)Circumstantial, of course.
The slow and botched response to COVID, plus simultaneously running up the price of PPE and ventilators by a price war with state governments and then refusing to use the federal government's leadership and buying power to rush the necessary amounts of equipment to the places most in need is egregious. There's also the sending our national stockpile reserves of ventilators and supplies to China and other countries this past winter.
Trump and his family are corrupt and serve their own self interests. But it seems to me that their self interest aligns with Putin's, and maybe the most reactionary of the super wealthy Americans too.
Rep. Katie Porter says she's got the receipts and that ventilators that have been ordered won't arrive until September.
The delays gave time for the corrupt profiteers to organize.
badseedboy
(174 posts)and she has made a compelling, sourced, logical argument that he was planted here to, well, bluntly, destroy our nation from within. I wonder what the past generations would say. I wonder what our progeny will say.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)enough to make this crisis go away. Some 75% of what the USPS does is to truck garbage across America.
jalan48
(13,797 posts)onecaliberal
(32,471 posts)jimfields33
(15,450 posts)3 bills at 6 trillion is it probably till fall. Lets spend that money first. Heck bill number 3 is just starting to be implemented.
ancianita
(35,812 posts)their states' numbers up.
BD's plan for USPS:
1. Defund
2. Deform (aka Reform, with "higher rates"
3. Stigmatize (gaslight)
4. Privatize (create 'market' for Amazon, FedEx and UPS)
femmedem
(8,187 posts)ffr
(22,644 posts)unless it was never there in the first place.
Fuckers!
bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)Freethinker65
(9,928 posts)Offer pandemic pay or extended loss of work benefits to US Postal workers during the period.
No sell offs, no robbing the pension fund, just no damn service to anyone. No political bullshit mailers, no catalogues, no bill paying, etc.
Just wait for the public comments to roll in. Americans will demand to get the USPS up and running again.
dixiechiken1
(2,113 posts)It just might work. I love it! Make people realize what they've taken for granted & risk losing.
True Blue American
(17,972 posts)For years!
Tweedy
(628 posts)He finds a way.
Bless our postal service! And may the democrats find a way to save this essential workforce!!
PatrickforO
(14,514 posts)And that Trump is basically a criminal, dirt-bag piece of crap that you wouldn't even want to have on your block let alone in your house.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,063 posts)Fiendish Thingy
(15,361 posts)This is all about suppressing votes in the election, and must not stand.
Starfury
(812 posts)This is conservative red meat to prop them back up, like the stupid wall.
Oppaloopa
(862 posts)Lulu KC
(2,547 posts)It is enormous.
If for no other reason than the vote--but for so many others.
global1
(25,166 posts)How will the credit card companies, utilities, mail order companies, etc be able to do business. You won't be getting bills and people will not be able to pay by mail. Not all Americans are capable of doing
on-line banking. Not everybody has a computer.
I don't think these business will stand for Trump and the Repugs to kill the Postal Service.
Am I missing something here?
Thekaspervote
(32,605 posts)The gop will have to fold on this one. Dotard is just bluster and in reality the rest of the gop get that this is election year...it would not end well for them
LaurenOlimina
(1,165 posts)WVreaper
(618 posts)We can bail out the poorly managed airlines and foreign registered cruise lines but not the USPS, as always with this administration, its all about the money. There is no USPS stock to buy or sell.
dalton99a
(81,062 posts)DinahMoeHum
(21,737 posts). . .if he tries to pull this shit.
Rural areas look at post offices as absolutely essential for their survival as communities.
Oh, one other thing: the GOoPers in Congress would be in violation of the Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 7) if they go along with it.
Just sayin'
#newrostrong
murielm99
(30,655 posts)post offices are employers in rural communities. Often, there is little other opportunity for good paying jobs.
RVN VET71
(2,686 posts)They've been creating havoc, deliberately, cutting the agency off at every opportunity at least since the GW Bush administration and the attacks continued, non-stop, through the Obama administration -- no, not from the Obama White House, from the GOP senate and congress. There's millions to be made by eliminating the USPS is why. Millions from FedEx, from UPS, from companies not yet created by greedy "entrepreneurs" with GOP congress critters in their back pockets.
Good luck to the Red State rural folks who voted for Bush and for Trump and for a host of GOP senators and congressman -- their mailing costs are about to shoot out of sight and it serves each of them goddam right. But what of the 600,000 employees? Say the GOP: screw 'em, screw their families, screw their partaking of what an American Dream that used to be available to everyone.
Trump is a greed head, worse than most -- maybe worst in the world -- so it makes sense that he'd do this, just as it makes sense that little Scalia would claim the authority to attack the unemployed b because, you know, millions for defense-contractors but not one penny for American citizens trying desperately to navigate the rough waters of a pandemic.
As an atheist, I cannot pray for a blight of leprosy on all of them, the entire GOP family of whores and sociopaths, and to their children unto the 7th generation. But sometimes I become outraged enough to entertain an effort to believe in a wrathful god who would answer such a prayer.
pwb
(11,204 posts)They almost got away with it. Our Postal Service will last until November when trump is shamed in total defeat. He is caught at everything and his time is running out.
RVN VET71
(2,686 posts)kick Orange Bonespur the hell out of town, and pack the Supreme Court to 11 members.
Then we can have a national "thank you" celebration to RBG when she is finally able to retire -- and write her books!
A dream. I hope not an idle one.
Mendocino
(7,430 posts)the USPS was considered an essential service. Business can't operate without the PO.
Thekaspervote
(32,605 posts)cstanleytech
(26,080 posts)A huge Razzie award for the worst portrayal of semi decent people by complete pieces of shit.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)SunSeeker
(51,367 posts)rickyhall
(4,889 posts)BadGimp
(4,009 posts)I'm convinced the blowback will be overwhelming and devastating the Trump and the GOP.
It will so clear to everyone just what they are trying to do and where their evil little hearts lie.
samnsara
(17,569 posts)I_UndergroundPanther
(12,450 posts)People like them would die off
alfredo
(60,065 posts)That is his plan from the start. Also driving it until it has to liquidate, so they have to sell Off their assets for pennies on the dollar. Several companies will get into the mail business, but with starvation wages, no union, no benefits.
They will not have the burden of universal delivery. Rural and poorer neighborhoods would be redlined due to low volume. I had 600 on my route, most were dirt poor. Small businesses would not be able to use the cheapest form of advertising, bulk business mail, AKA junk mail.
Postal workers helped maintain the middle class, and are one of the largest employer of veterans. Postal workers can afford to buy homes, send their kids to college, and Have political power.
c-rational
(2,581 posts)rethuglicans who suggest it should operate more like a business indicates they to have drunk the kool aid. Fair and far minded people would allow the Post Office to make small loans like it used to. Enough with the neoliberalism bullshit and Milton Friedman economics. This is about living in a just and fair society, which is exactly why the dumpster not only will not help but actively tries to destroy this institution.
Nacht Owl
(66 posts)Yeah, sure, go right ahead, Mr. Stable Genius, go right ahead! I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
Rebl2
(13,301 posts)doesnt help USPS thats 600,000 plus added to the millions of jobs already lost. Hes an idiot.
Marthe48
(16,688 posts)That this most important of all services is being strangled by repukes who can't wait to kill another union
pansypoo53219
(20,906 posts)Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)Whe TArump talked about those "shithole countries" he didn't reveal that he and the GOP were working hard to make America one, because, well, it's easier to dishevel and overtake a country on its knees.
You want what? Mail? Go get yourself!!!! Pull yourself up by your mail bags and do a pony express, like when America was great!
stillcool
(32,626 posts)MFGsunny
(2,356 posts)I can almost see Madame Speaker look at MF45 across that huge table,
shake that finger of hers, and declare with marching cadence ::
"Oh no, you don't. You're swimming in my pool now, guppy (GOPPY)!"