{"id":3174,"date":"2020-08-25T07:48:15","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T11:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=3174"},"modified":"2020-08-25T07:48:21","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T11:48:21","slug":"the-post-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2020\/08\/25\/the-post-office\/","title":{"rendered":"The Post Office"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Constitutional Mandate<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Why should the Postal Service be a financially \u201cbreak even\u201d operation?\u00a0 Of all of the powers vested in the Constitution, (Article 1, Section 8, clause 7), why is this one power somehow expected to make money?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USPS is running a $20 billion deficit. That includes the total cost of anticipated health care of current employees for their entire retirement.\u00a0\u00a0No reasonable company pays upfront for retirement insurance coverage costs, but the Postal Service does, by law.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And $20 billion, which sounds like a lot of money, is nothing compared to the $686 billion Defense budget, or even Education with $68 billion (and not mentioned in the Constitution).\u00a0\u00a0Neither Defense nor Education turns a profit, nor raises revenue at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I question the entire premise that somehow the Postal Service should be making money.\u00a0\u00a0The Postal Service is just that, a public service provided by the government.\u00a0\u00a0It shouldn’t be a money making deal.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s not what government is supposed to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public Service<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Postal Service has a function: to help unite America with communication.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s what the Founding Fathers intended when they specifically provided for Post Offices and Post roads.\u00a0\u00a0 Even though the means of communicating has dramatically changed since 1786, that function still exists.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Postal Service employs over 600,000 people.\u00a0\u00a0If it were a private employer (it\u2019s not) it would be the second largest in the United States, just ahead of Amazon.\u00a0\u00a0And somehow, even in this era of electronic communication, those 600,000 workers still have a lot to do.\u00a0\u00a0In fact they are so important, that changes made in the Postal Service procedures that disrupt deliveries creat a huge uproar.\u00a0\u00a0Despite email and Amazon, people still depend on the Postal Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I listened to the testimony of Postmaster General DeJoy to both the Senate and the House of Representatives.\u00a0\u00a0DeJoy, a private logistics industry executive appointed to the role, is directly responsible for postal delays in July and August.\u00a0\u00a0They are a part of his economic reforms of the Postal Service.\u00a0\u00a0DeJoy sees his responsibility as making sure the Postal Service is financially solvent.\u00a0\u00a0He might not have a political agenda, despite Democratic legislators\u2019 suggestions.\u00a0\u00a0While he is a major Trump fundraiser, what he seems like to me is a man on a mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Run on Time <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

His mission is to cut costs.  His mission is to make the \u201ctrucks run on time\u201d.  The problem is, his mission isn’t getting the mail through.  How else can he explain that he has trucks moving from one sorting facility to another, empty?  How else can we understand that personnel are sent home while thousands of pieces of mail remain unsorted?  And what conclusion can we draw from the removal of high-speed sorting machines, other than he does not want to pay personnel to run those machines?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All a stammering DeJoy could say to that was,\u00a0\u00a0\u201c\u2026the plan was for the trucks to run on time\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0But the mail wasn\u2019t on the trucks.\u00a0\u00a0Democratic Congressman Connolly made the point that maybe this was all done \u201cinnocently\u201d, not as some nefarious plot to disrupt mail service before the election. Either way, disruption happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Votes in Question<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The reasons aren\u2019t important. These actions are impacting the election of 2020.\u00a0\u00a0The US Postal Service may return to ontime delivery before the elections, but the damage is done.\u00a0\u00a0DeJoy’s actions have dovetails with the President\u2019s ongoing message. The President reiterated that yesterday in North Carolina.\u00a0\u00a0Trump said the 2020 election will be fraudulent; mail-in voting (unless in Florida) will be be cheated; and we can\u2019t depend on the Postal Service to get our votes through.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is a larger point, when it comes to voting.\u00a0\u00a0Americans are concerned with our disaster in handling the COVID crisis.\u00a0\u00a0They are so concerned that most will risk exposure to the virus and vote.\u00a0\u00a0Americans will still vote absentee (by mail) but many more will don all the HAZMAT protection they can find and go stand in line.\u00a0\u00a0They know that this is a critical election, so critical that it will be worth the unnecessary loss of life from COVID infection.\u00a0\u00a0And make no mistake about this, lives will be lost on November 3rd<\/sup>\u00a0(Reuters<\/a>). People are afraid their voices won\u2019t be heard if they send a ballot by mail, thanks to the President, and to General DeJoy. So they will risk their lives and vote in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future of the Nation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We should start over.\u00a0\u00a0We should go back to the Post Office, a constitutionally mandated organization with a mission to unite America.\u00a0\u00a0It shouldn\u2019t be about some unrealistic bottom line, or Rand Paul\u2019s fever dream of privatization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as far as this election is concerned, the undermining of public confidence in the Postal Service is done, another \u201cbox checked\u201d on the list of Trump\u2019s transgressions against US democracy.\u00a0\u00a0The future of the democracy will be determined November. It will be loud and clear from the American people, whether they vote in person or by mail.\u00a0\u00a0And that answer will determine the fate of our Republic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Constitutional Mandate Why should the Postal Service be a financially \u201cbreak even\u201d operation?\u00a0 Of all of the powers vested in the Constitution, (Article 1, Section 8, clause 7), why is this one power somehow expected to make money?\u00a0\u00a0 The USPS is running a $20 billion deficit. That includes the total cost of anticipated health care … Continue reading “The Post Office”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Post Office : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Changes in the Postal Service might be political or simply financial. 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