Thanks for a great piece! I would just add that the Republicans have made us believe that the Post Office should be profitable or there's a problem. The US Mail is a service, just like the military or the CDC or the NIH. Congress funds them to provide the services they provide. No one is looking to shut down the CDC because it's not prof…
Thanks for a great piece! I would just add that the Republicans have made us believe that the Post Office should be profitable or there's a problem. The US Mail is a service, just like the military or the CDC or the NIH. Congress funds them to provide the services they provide. No one is looking to shut down the CDC because it's not profitable—and the doctors and researchers there make a lot more money than postal workers.
And normally, Congress doesn't even fund the USPS. They don't get our tax dollars. What Congress does do is control whether they can raise postal rates, at all. And they've been refused the ability to do so many times.
That's what made Trump's comments about "they need to raise their rates!" so especially infuriating. Like, YES, MAYBE THAT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA. Why don't you talk to the fucking Senate about that, hmm?
(I'm absolutely sure that Trump has no idea how the USPS works; a lot of Americans don't. I'm also absolutely sure that there's someone in the WH who does know, but who felt it wasn't in their best political interests to inform him. Or who knows, maybe they told him, and either he forgot again 2 minutes later, or because it didn't match up to the reality he prefers, he just ignored it. The result is the same.)
Thanks for a great piece! I would just add that the Republicans have made us believe that the Post Office should be profitable or there's a problem. The US Mail is a service, just like the military or the CDC or the NIH. Congress funds them to provide the services they provide. No one is looking to shut down the CDC because it's not profitable—and the doctors and researchers there make a lot more money than postal workers.
And normally, Congress doesn't even fund the USPS. They don't get our tax dollars. What Congress does do is control whether they can raise postal rates, at all. And they've been refused the ability to do so many times.
That's what made Trump's comments about "they need to raise their rates!" so especially infuriating. Like, YES, MAYBE THAT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA. Why don't you talk to the fucking Senate about that, hmm?
(I'm absolutely sure that Trump has no idea how the USPS works; a lot of Americans don't. I'm also absolutely sure that there's someone in the WH who does know, but who felt it wasn't in their best political interests to inform him. Or who knows, maybe they told him, and either he forgot again 2 minutes later, or because it didn't match up to the reality he prefers, he just ignored it. The result is the same.)
"No one is looking to shut down the CDC because it's not profitable"
Careful, you may have just given Republicans a new talking point.