The US Postal Service has sent an S.O.S. On a normal day the USPS provides an essential service to millions of Americans but during a pandemic it is life saving. Unfortunately, like many other businesses, COVID19 has caused USPS revenue streams to fall precipitously. First Class and Business Mail has declined to levels far below normal and Package Mail isn’t the biggest part of their business model.
A lot of the financial problems the USPS face stems from 2006 Republican legislation that forced it to prefund all retiree’s future health benefits to the tune of 5.5 billion dollars a year. The naked and sole reason for forcing the Postal Service to jump such an onerous financial hurdle is to force it to fail so it can be privatized.
The 2 trillion stimulus package that came from the House did indeed include bailout relief for the USPS. Of course the Republican ghouls in the Senate used their majority to force that relief out. All that was in the latest bill was an insufficient 10 billion Treasury LOAN.
Pelosi and Schumer need to make the continued longevity of the USPS as well as National Vote By Mail absolutely essential in any funding for anything. People rely on the USPS, especially those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder.
USPS warns it might have to shutter by June as $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package provides no funding
Today, the Postal Service is just as essential: It delivers about 1 million lifesaving medications each year and serves as the only delivery link to Americans living in rural areas. Working with other delivery services like UPS, the agency supports $1.7 trillion in sales and 7.3 million private sector workers year, and this year will prove essential to delivering the 2020 Census to citizens as well as any vote-by-mail initiatives. The USPS is the federal government’s most favorably viewed agency, with an approval rating of 90%.
Yet once again, the USPS is in crisis mode.
With a negative net worth of $65 billion and an additional $140 billion in unfunded liabilities, the USPS originally expected to run out of liquidity by 2021 without intervention. That has accelerated rapidly because of COVID-19. Fewer people and businesses are sending mail because of the outbreak, which could hasten the decline of the Postal Service and close its doors as early as June, officials warned.
“The coronavirus crisis is wreaking havoc on the Postal Service. Without immediate action by Congress and the President, the Postal Service—a vital staple of American society since 1775—could cease to exist by this summer,” House Committee on Oversight and Reform chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) told Fortune by email. “This is a national emergency. We cannot afford to wait until June.”
Without government intervention, the post office is facing the same hurdle as other businesses are right now: There’s not enough cash to keep operations going.
snip
But the USPS has also been hemorrhaging money, largely owing to a piece of 2006 legislation, championed by the George W. Bush administration and congressional Republicans, that requires the Postal Service to pre-fund all future retiree health benefits, amounting to at least $5.5 billion annually. That edict, according to Brennan, has led to 80% of the agency’s losses. As a result of the lack of revenue, the Trump administration has suggested on multiple occasions that parts of the postal service be sold to private industry.
snip
“Republicans pressed for hundreds of billions of dollars in massive bailouts to all kinds of large businesses and corporations, including $17 billion to Boeingand other companies. Yet they refused to give the Postal Service anything but increased borrowing authority,” said Maloney. “The White House and Senate Republicans…have wanted to privatize the Postal Service for years, but exploiting the coronavirus crisis in order to do so [is] a new low.”
fortune.com/...