Tuesday, April 14, 2020

USPS For Sale

With Total Douche living in the VWH at taxpayer expense, everything is political--from saving lives in a pandemic to funding the Post Office.   The venerable Post Office is short $75 billion and will have to shut down if it does not receiving a financing lifeline that Total Douche refused to offer. The service is going broke because it was forced by Congress to fully fund generous retirement benefits it owes to employees, and a dramatic downturn in demand volume for its two money-making services, first-class mail, and marketing (junk) mail. In its most recent quarterly statement, USPS reported a 2.3 percent increase in revenue from parcel delivery and increased revenue per package. The service director told Congress that the pandemic effect will cost $22 million more in net operating loss over the next 18 months.

Why doesn't Total Douche want to fund USPS?  There are two reasons, both political.  Conservatives have been trying to privatize the post office for years as part of their 'government cannot do anything business could do at a profit attitude', and perhaps more importantly, the post office will be responsible for delivering mail-in ballots cast in the next presidential election. Total Douche has already admitted that increased access to the ballot box by disenfranchised (mostly poor minority) voters would result in Repugnants "never being elected again".  The service has gone without federal funding since 2006, relying on generated revenue.  The perverse Trumpists had little problem providing $500 billion in relief to wealthy corporations without meaningful oversight of how the money will be spent, but would only allow a $10 billion loan to USPS.

Besides the self-serving objections to increased voter participation by mail, the USPS is an important part of the public health response to the current crisis. Many rural 'Mericans rely on the postal service to deliver their medications, food, and other necessities of life.  Making them pay more for this vital service is adding salt to their financial wounds*.  Tell Congress to ignore Total Douche and support the USPS in this crisis.

*The regime's predatory instincts were laid bare, again, by the Treasury Department's willingness to allow debt collectors to seize the $1200 relief checks being issued to citizens with direct deposit authorization. The Fiscal Service Bureau told bankers during a pod cast “there’s nothing in the [CARES] law that precludes” financial institutions from seizing a person’s payment and using it to pay off the individual’s private debts. The median gross weekly wage in Trumpistan is only $933.  Think about how you are going to stretch $1200 for ten weeks when you live paycheck to paycheck and sit in a miles long line for food.  Remember: Total Douche is making 'Merica great again; meanwhile, let them eat tweets!  Professor Noam Chomsky calls Total Douche, the "most successful con-man in American history, ever."  And that folks, is saying something!