I don’t know why Donald Trump hates the Post Office so much but he does. (If I had to guess it’s because it employs a lot of African Americans and is used by Amazon which always makes him mad because Jeff Bezos is a lot richer than he is.)
Whatever the reason his hatred for the Post Office is one of the weirdest of his inexplicable obsessions. So naturally, he stepped in to deny any kind of bailout for the perpetually strained system, even at a time when we all depend on it more than ever:
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 Service’s decades-long financial troubles have worsened dramatically as the volume of the kind of mail that pays the agency’s 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 service’s budget.
Trump threatened to veto the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or Cares Act, if the legislation contained any money directed to bail out the postal agency, according to a senior Trump administration official and a congressional official who, like others in this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity.AD
“We told them very clearly that the president was not going to sign the bill if [money for the Postal Service] was in it,” the Trump administration official said. “I don’t know if we used the v-bomb, but the president was not going to sign it, and we told them that.”
Instead, Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) added a last minute $10 billion Treasury Department loan to the Cares Act to keep the agency on firmer ground through the spring of 2020, according to a Democratic committee aide.Trump signs $2 trillion coronavirus relief billPresident Trump on March 27 signed into law a $2 trillion stimulus package, considered the largest economic relief in the nation’s history. (Reuters)
Lawmakers originally agreed to a $13 billion direct grant the Postal Service would not have to repay. That effort was blocked by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin who warned such a move could blow up the relief bill. A committee aide said Mnuchin told lawmakers during negotiations: “You can have a loan or you can have nothing at all.”
They want to hand out massive billions to fat cats in the energy sector but this is where they draw the line. Jesus.
It appears that the Trump administration would like to see it completely shut down as a result of this crisis. I guess laying off 600,000 more people would make Trump’s day. They are, after all, “the wrong people.” They approved a $10 billion loan , which still hasn’t been “approved” by the Treasury Department.
The Postal Service projects it will lose $2 billion each month through the coronavirus recession while postal workers maintain the nationwide service of delivering essential mail and parcels, such as prescriptions, food and household necessities.
That work often comes at great personal risk. Nearly 500 postal workers have tested positive for the coronavirus and 462 others are presumptive positives, USPS leaders told lawmakers. Nineteen have died; more than 6,000 are in self-quarantine because of exposure.
Fucking Trump. There is absolutely nothing he won’t do to make life everywhere worse for everyone.