Name: Editorial: Trump’s new reason for starving the Postal Service? To stop mail-in voting.
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Editorial: Trump’s new reason for starving the Postal Service? To stop mail-in voting.

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Just let this sink in: America, the richest, most powerful country in the world, doesn’t have a fully functioning postal service.Every day, the iconic U.S. institution inches closer to bankruptcy and collapse. Every day, the president seems unbothered by that prospect, and at times, even glad.Before this week, we could blame Donald Trump’s oft-expressed contempt for the USPS on his disdain for both government bureaucracy and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, having once called the Postal Service Amazon’s “delivery boy” and the agency’s relationship with the online retailer as a money-losing boondoggle.But on Thursday, Trump revealed another reason for blocking life-sustaining funding for the U.S. Postal Service: to stop mail-in voting in the presidential election.In other words, to stop democracy.Even after all the loose-lipped admissions we’ve heard from this president, it was still outrageous to hear him Thursday, confirming that he opposes efforts by Democrats to fund the USPS because he wants to make it harder to expand voting by mail.Speaking to host Maria Bartiromo, Trump railed against Democrats for including $3.5 billion to fund universal mail-in voting for the November election in the latest coronavirus stimulus bill. He then moved on to the postal service.“They want $25 billion for the post office. Now, they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said. “But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.”It’s not just Democrats who need that funding to “have the post office work.” It is every American who depends on the postal service to deliver to 160 million addresses in 2019 alone.Trump may not be a fan, but the USPS is . Unlike private carriers, it is tasked with universal delivery and is sometimes the only option for much of rural America.During an election, the mail is vital to democracy by ensuring that all mail-in ballots are distributed and returned in a timely manner. Indeed, years of budget cuts and sorting center closures have already slowed down the mail and led to election year problems. An found that in primaries held in 2020, at least 65,000 absentee or mail-in ballots were rejected throughout the country because they arrived past deadline, even if mailed with plenty of time by voters.The rest of the year, postal workers reaffirm their essential role, whether delivering a birthday card to Grandma in Houston or medicine to a clinic in West Texas.Thursday was the first time Trump tied his opposition to funding the postal service to the election.He had threatened to veto the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, if it contained money to bail out the postal service, . The final bill, signed into law in March, allowed the agency to borrow more money, but Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin successfully killed a $13 billion grant that Congress had formerly earmarked.The president has moved from Bezos-fueled personal pique to accusations, not supported by any evidence, that vote by mail suffers from widespread fraud. Vote by mail is a safe and secure way to cast a ballot, especially during the pandemic, when in-person voting comes with a measure of risk.No doubt, the USPS was in financial trouble long before Trump was elected. Along with a longstanding drop in volume due to competition from private companies and use of email, it is facing a $22 billion shortfall over the next 18 months during the coronavirus outbreak.To keep doing its job, it needs more money from Congress — or a reprieve from prior legislation that leaves it at a competitive disadvantage by forcing it to pre-fund health care benefits for future retirees.What it doesn’t need is presidential obstruction or tactics by newly appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a large donor for Trump and the Republican Party, who plans to close post office locations and do away with overtime, which would slow down the mail even further at a time when prompt delivery is critical.Opposing the funding of one of America’s most important institutions over a naked attempt at voter suppression is a new low, even for Trump. Congress must act decisively to support the U.S. Postal Service and, by so doing, protect our democracy.

Just let this sink in: America, the richest, most powerful country in the world, doesn’t have a fully functioning postal service.Every day, the iconic U.S. institution inches closer to bankruptcy and collapse. Every day, the president seems unbothered by that prospect, and at times, even glad.Before this week, we could blame Donald Trump’s oft-expressed contempt for the USPS on his disdain for both government bureaucracy and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, having once called the Postal Service Amazon’s “delivery boy” and the agency’s relationship with the online retailer as a money-losing...

Editorial: Trump’s new reason for starving the Postal Service? To stop mail-in voting.

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