Trump reportedly said he would reject a bailout package if it included aid to keep the US Postal Service functioning
Business Insider•April 11, 2020
insider@insider.com (Connor Perrett)President Trump reportedly said he wouldn’t sign the CARES Act — the $2.2 trillion stimulus package — if it contained bailout funding for USPS, according to The Washington Post.
Lawmakers have warned the postal service could run out of money by June.
USPS is asking Congress for a $50 billion bailout and $25 billion in loans from the Treasury Department to make up for losses.
Only a fool doesn’t understand the vital importance of the USPS to America. The real question: Why is the postal service required to make a profit?
The White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court don’t make a profit. The military, FEMA, FDA, NASA, FBI don’t make a profit. They are federal agencies, and as such, can receive infinite financial support from the federal government.
What about Air Force One, the planes that fly Trump, his family, and his entourage hither and yon, and charge them no fares. Should Air Force One be required to be profitable?
Any profits the postal service might send to the U.S. Treasury would be destroyed upon receipt. So what is going on, here?
President Donald Trump said he would refuse to sign the $2.2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package if it contained funding for the United States Postal Service, according to a report Saturday from The Washington Post.
“We told them very clearly that the president was not going to sign the bill if [money for the Postal Service] was in it,” a Trump administration official told the Post.
“I don’t know if we used the v-bomb, but the president was not going to sign it, and we told them that.”
Only a fool doesn’t understand the vital importance of the USPS to America. What’s the problem with funding the postal service?
In addition to the senior White House official, The Washington Post reported a congressional official also confirmed the president threatened to refuse to sign the $2.2 trillion stimulus package known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act if it contained any relief money for the postal service.
“You can have a loan or you can have nothing at all,” Mnuchin said.
Why a loan? The federal government, having the unlimited ability to create dollars, doesn’t need to receive dollars back. If something is worthwhile, the government should give, not lend.
Why demand payback from this federal agency?
Only a fool doesn’t understand the vital importance of the USPS to America.
As Business Insider previously reported, lawmakers last month warned that the postal service could shut down in less than three months.
“Based on a number of briefings and warnings this week about a critical fall-off in mail across the country, it has become clear that the Postal Service will not survive the summer without immediate help from Congress and the White House,” Reps. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, and Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia, said in a statement.
Is it only the Democrats who understand the vital importance of the postal service? No Republicans?
Only a fool doesn’t understand the vital importance of the USPS to America.
A halt in USPS operations could have varying consequences from preventing access to medication to impacting voters who cast ballots by mail as state lawmakers consider expanding main-in-voting due to the pandemic.
In a statement Friday, Megan Brennan, postmaster general & CEO of USPS said it estimated a net operating loss of over $22 billion dollars over the next eighteen months, and by over $54 billion dollars in “the longer term.”
Almost every federal agency runs at a loss, and that is as it should be. A Monetarily Sovereign government should not be in the profit-making business.
The advantage of Monetary Sovereignty is that there is no profit-motive to compete with the real motive: Providing service to the people.
So why does the often-bankrupt Donald Trump insist that the postal service be profitable?
Only a fool doesn’t understand the vital importance of the USPS to America.
“As Congress and the Administration take steps to support businesses and industries around the country, it is imperative that they also take action to shore up the finances of the Postal Service, and enable us to continue to fulfill our indispensable role during the pandemic, and to play an effective role in the nation’s economic recovery,” Brennan said.
The postal service and its board of governors is asking Congress for a $50 billion bailout as well as $25 billion in loans from the Treasury Department. The president on Tuesday blamed online retailers — like Amazon — for killing the postal service, which has for years reported losses unrelated to its COVID-19 struggles.
And there is the answer to the title question: Trump vindictiveness.
Because Trump personally hates Jeff Bezos, should the postal service be put out of business? Is eliminating the postal service part of Trump’s method for making America great, again? Is Trump’s satisfying of his vengeance the key issue for America?
Only a fool doesn’t understand the vital importance of the USPS to America.
“This is the new one. I’m the demise of the Postal Service,” Trump said. “I’ll tell you who’s the demise of the Postal Service, are these internet companies that give their stuff to the Postal Service.”
Tell me this. How will it help the economy if the postal service charges private companies more to deliver their packages?
Personally, I’d love to see Trump veto the bill, and then try to come up with a replacement for the postal service — similar to his replacement for Obamacare.
Only a fool doesn’t understand the vital importance of the USPS to America.
Only a fool.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
Twitter: @rodgermitchell
Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.
The most important problems in economics involve:
- Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
- Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”
Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.
Implementation of Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:
Ten Steps To Prosperity:
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D, plus long-term care — for everyone
3. Provide a monthly economic bonus to every man, woman and child in America (similar to social security for all)
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
5. Salary for attending school
6. Eliminate federal taxes on business
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually.
8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.
9. Federal ownership of all banks
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9%
The Ten Steps will grow the economy and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
Why does he hate the USPS? Because he is an idiot, basically.
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The postal service could shut down in less than three months, just in time to hurt who? Democrats? Maybe that’s part of his reasoning also.
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Could be, since he hates mail-in voting — too many minorities.
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I find it interesting that we have a president who totally exemplifies selfishness, while the world totally struggles against self-interest in order to defeat Covid19.
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Actually, that’s not his only trait: https://mythfighter.com/2017/03/26/the-secret-gop-checklist-of-presidential-requirements-know-anyone/
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When I was trying to defend the USPS elsewhere, people pointed out that it distorts the mail delivery industry by anchoring the prices. So basically UPS and FedEx can’t charge whatever they wanted because of USPS. So unlike the other services you mention above USPS is a player on the market and free market advocates believe its existence was against competition and there is nothing it provides which the other players could not provide (at market set prices). It sounds like a bunch of bull to me but what is your take on this argument? Also are there any other fields where privately owned companies have to compete with a publicly owned company?
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You might wish to view this article. When Government Competes Against the Private Sector, Everybody Wins
Education is one notable example of public/private competition.
The USPS easily could eliminate FedEx and UPS if allowed by Congress to do so. But the USPS is required by law, to deliver everywhere, even to the notoriously unprofitable rural areas, and it does so at much lower prices than do private competitors.
But Congress, in its wisdom, prevents the USPS from engaging in certain profitable pursuits (read the article), and requires that unlike almost all other federal agencies, it be self-funding.
Because mail is a vital service, Congress should fund the USPS, and allow it to engage in other mail-related services, like FedEx and UPS do. It would benefit the nation for mail and package shipping to cost less.
If the USPS didn’t have a profit motive it could cut prices dramatically, for the benefit of all.
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