Washington, DC – The media is pinning postal woes on President Trump. Although, you could arguably blame Bush 43 or Nixon or the biggest culprit – mismanagement over decades. This is pretty typical, Trump disagrees with a liberal state on policy, then there is some conspiracy associated with it, then Trump gets blamed for a problem he didn’t create. So is the lamestream news media cycle. Here at the Citizen’s Press, we will break the cycle, throw it in the dumpster, and light it on fire.
Let’s recap what happened in this Trump vs. The Post Office dust-up. Trump criticizes mail-in voting. A new head of the Post Office gets appointed who allegedly has ties to Trump. Some reforms are proposed, and the unions plus some democrats start to claim a slow down in services. Then Trump gets accused of purposely slowing down the Post Office to alter the November election because there may be a change in service. Of course, all of these mail-in-ballot “reforms” completely ignored that the Post Office has been in financial trouble for decades.
Can you name the last year that the Post Office broke even (their revenue covered their expenses)? If you guessed 2006, you are correct – sort of. Even in 2006, the Post Office had billions of dollars of debt on its books due to the substantial public pension obligations. It was 2006 that Congress acted to help the Post Office shed some debt and get back to financial stability. But like most government-run or related programs, the “help” fell flat. The Post Office is a quasi-governmental entity that is supposed to be its own enterprise but has government oversight. This was President Nixon’s doing back in the early 1970s.
From the Washinton Post (we love how they say the numbers are “encouraging” HAHAHA):
The numbers are encouraging, experts say, even while pointing to the Postal Service’s unsustainable financial model and a need for congressional action. The Postal Service hasn’t broken even since 2006 and has racked up $160.9 billion in debt. The bulk of that, $119.3 billion, stems from its annual obligation to prepay retiree health benefits, according to the Government Accountability Office. The Postal Service has defaulted on the payments intended to set up that account since 2011.
Jacob Bogage, Under siege from Trump, U.S. Postal Service finds surprising financial upside in pandemic, The Washington Post, July 25, 2020
Now it’s time for a history lesson so you can make your liberal friends angry with facts and logic. Let’s start with how the Post Office transformed into the quasi-governmental agency it is. From an informative article published by WBUR:
The Nixon administration proposed turning the post office into a corporate-like agency that wouldn’t rely on the federal government for funding…The two sides came up with a compromise, which reorganized the postal service into an independent agency and gave workers collective bargaining… “It’s part government agency and part corporation because postal workers are the only government employees who enjoy full collective bargaining rights,” Rubio explains. “But on the other hand, Congress also directed the postal service to become self-supporting. They have not received any federal funds, in fact, since 1982.”
Tonya Mosely & Samantha Raphelson,U.S. Postal Service Stands To Suffer Huge Losses From Coronavirus Pandemic, WBUR.org, April 21, 2020
This happened because postal workers had complained about wages. They gained collective bargaining rights – meaning the Union took over. What we know is when unions take over, they may increase worker’s situation, but they often vote in pretty lavish benefits – usually pensions. This is what happened to the Post Office, much like in many State Public Pensions.
Of course, kicking the can down the road to younger generations when it comes to pensions does have an endpoint when the bills come due. In 2006, Congress tried to fend this off and tried to put the Post Office on more stable financial ground. That didn’t work, because institutionally it’s next to impossible for large Union run government-type agencies to reform. But if you look at the timeline, none of the Post Office’s woes happened under Trump’s watch. The Obama years is when the Post Office started to hurt, and the reforms were ignored.
The media is pinning postal woes on President Trump.
Now the media is taking to blaming Trump for some additional needed reforms. The Post Office has been in trouble for a while. Trump seems to want to put them on better financial footing – he wanted some concessions if they were going to get a loan. You can’t keep on feeding the beast and expect a different result. This isn’t about the election; this is about saving the Post Office that does play a vital (but diminishing) role in America. If you read CNN, you would never know this, but now you do!
What do you think? Is the Post Office essential to America as we know it? Should Trump take the blame for the Post Office’s woes? Why don’t we just blame Obama and the Unions? Please write your comments below and on social media.
Please share!
If you like the content, we will value your support! Please “like” us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter! Let’s spread the conservative message, together!