Let’s Just Fund the USPS at the Right Level and Stop Lying that It’s About Inefficiency

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Written by Leonard   
Tuesday, 18 August 2020 06:43

What Trump is doing to slow the effectiveness of the USPS is unethical, criminal and just based on another one of his thousands of lies.  In reality, the USPS is the highest rated US Government agency at a 91% approval rate and unethical Federal interference has been standing in the way of its profitability since 2006.  In a recent Pew Survey it was found that:

“Americans’ opinion of the U.S. Postal Service remains highly positive, according to the results of a new survey. The Pew Research Center survey released April 9 shows an overwhelming 91 percent of respondents have a favorable view of USPS, higher than any other federal agency.[1]

Trump complains that the USPS is over-budget.  But who says the annual budget amount allocated to the USPS is even close to correct or that Trump and his inexperienced and incompetent Postmaster-General are even capable of determining a correct budget for the USPS.  Didn’t Trump file for bankruptcy for his companies at least 4-5 times in his career?  He must not be a very good budgeter.  Statistica reports data that indicates:  “between the fiscal year of 2004 and 2019, annual revenue of the U.S. Postal Services (USPS) fluctuated (a bit) around 70 billion U.S. dollars. In the fiscal year of 2019, the USPS generated annual revenue of over 71.1 billion U.S. dollars.” [2] The USPC losses shown in an article posted on the internet by ThoughtCo. indicates an average annual loss of $6.6 billion (less than 10%/year) [3]. But these “artificially imposed losses”  began in 2006 when the Republican Congress passed a law requiring the USPS to pre-fund a pension plan for employees that covers individuals for 75 years past their retirement date, while most other federal agencies and US corporations utilize a traditional pay as you go Pension Plan, which does not seem to cause financial burdens.

The 2006 USPS pension plan has a cost of approximately $110 billion over ten years, making it almost impossible for the USPS to show a positive cash flow while fulfilling its mission [4]. This Republican forced approach supports a 40 year set of inappropriate conservative goals (since Reagan) to sell off profitable and essential US tax payer run and supported government “services” so the “profits” accrue to the same already rich and often corrupt “Republican cronies and supporters.”  Making things worse, while the money collected from USPS employees is intended to be set aside for future Post Office retirees, the funds are instead being diverted to help pay down the national debt, which has been growing rapidly under Trump and the Republicans since 2017 [4].

Here is the simple truth:  “If the costs of this inappropriate retiree health care mandate were removed from the USPS financial statements, the Post Office would have reported operating profits in each of the last six years. This extraordinary mandate created a financial “crisis” for the USPS, which had been operating at a profit, and has been used to justify harmful service cuts and even calls for postal privatization.” [5]

In other words, the USPS with its 91% approval rating, compared to Trumps 40%  rating and the Congress’ rating bouncing around in a range of 15-20%, deserves either a pay-as-you go pension plan or a $7-10 billion dollar budget increase, which will balance its budget and restore most of the 91% approved services.  Perhaps one of the reasons Trump only has a 40% approval rating, a mere 51% below the USPS, is because he can’t figure out how to generate or read a budget for a service providing government agency, with a 91% approval rating.  It seems the USPS is over budget because it is underfunded for carrying out its highly rated, mandated mission. Attempts by the Congress to fix this situation have been blocked by the Republican controlled Senate.

The Trump approach to his own businesses has been to under budget many of his major projects (e.g. Atlantic City casinos) and then unethically pass the losses over to his contractors by offering to pay them 10-20 cents on the dollar that he owed them.  If they tried to collect, he threatened to sue them and take them to court, which most of them could not afford.  We all believe, because he has publicly admitted as much, that  Trump’s actions for slowing down the USPS through removal of equipment and installation of new processes are simply to help his chances in the Nov 3 elections by suppressing millions of Democratic voters. These are criminal violations of both Federal and States Laws that need to be immediately addressed by both Democrats and Republicans to protect our democracy and our right to vote [6].

[1] https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2020/0415-usps-tops-list-again-as-americans-favorite-government-agency.htm

[2]  https://www.statista.com/statistics/320215/global-revenue-of-the-us-postal-service/

[3]  https://www.thoughtco.com/postal-service-losses-by-year-3321043

[4] https://defazio.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/defazio-authored-bill-to-help-us-postal-service-maintain-sustainability

[5]  https://ips-dc.org/how-congrand US companiesess-manufactured-a-postal-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/

[6]  https://readersupportednews.org/pm-section/78-78/64574-the-states-will-need-more-locations-and-a-volunteer-vote-corp-asap-to-help-with-ballot-distribution-and-collection-to-guarantee-a-fair-2020-election

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