You know what "business" is specifically noted in the Constitution? In Article 1, section 8, clause 7, the Constitution bestows on Congress the power and the responsibility “to establish Post Offices and post Roads.”
The USPS is literally a lifeline to Americans, particularly rural Americans and vulnerable populations. It's not funded by through your taxes, either; it's funded by the provision of services. Which is to say that every time you send a letter or mail a package or order something online that ends up being delivered by USPS, you're funding the postal system.
In 2006, Republicans (yeah, it's always those guys, isn't it?) manufactured a crisis at USPS by passing a law requiring it to fully fund retirement for postal workers for 75 years into the future. SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS. Think about that for a second. Can you think of any other business, union, or public pension plan that's funded that far in advance? You can't, because there isn't one. Is Social Security funded 75 years in advance for retirees? It certainly is not (and that's by design too because the Republicans want to destroy the entire social safety net).
Why would the Republican Congress pass that 2006 law, you ask? It's pretty simple. You take an organization or program that's working really well and actually serving the people, and you follow three simple steps:
1. Place extreme requirements on that organization or program that would be considered unreasonable were they applied to any other organization or program.
2. Wait for the organization or program to falter under the weight of those unreasonable requirements.
3. Claim that the organization is badly managed and must be turned over to the private sector, which can definitely (they claim) run it better.
4. The newly privatized organization or program doesn't have the same unreasonable requirements, plus the new owners raise the prices, so it turns a hell of a profit (FOR THE PRIVATE OWNER) because it is now so "well managed."
Of course, the problem with this system is that anyone who depends on that organization or program loses out on a valuable service because they may not be able to afford it at the new rates. But to Republicans, that's a feature, not a bug.
Look around and you'll see this pattern repeated for all kinds of services that work to better the lives of everyday Americans, especially vulnerable populations. Social Security. Medicare. Medicaid. WIC. Food stamps/SNAP. You can even see it in the TRAP laws designed to prevent women from exercising their constitutional right to get an abortion (these laws put unreasonable requirements on everything from the width of the hallway at an abortion clinic to the requirement for doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals, which are then denied because most of the hospitals are owned by religious organizations). It's ugly, and it's insidious.
What does this have to do with COVID-19? I'm so glad you asked! USPS volume has dropped by 30 percent since the pandemic started, and the post office is in danger of shutting down entirely. The postmaster general says that at the current rate, USPS will be out of money by June. She has asked for funding to keep the post office running and to modernize its operations, and Congress negotiated that funding into the earlier rescue bills ... but guess who refused to sign any stimulus packages that included ANY funding for USPS? That's right, this incompetent, dangerous president.
He wants the post office to fail. And Republicans are with him. And this pandemic is giving them the perfect cover for making that happen.
And just like the governors are on their own in terms of sourcing PPE and ventilators, and deciding when to shut down or reopen their states, we're on our own to save the post office. And we *should* save the post office. It's truly the definition of an essential service.
So what can you do? Buy stamps. Send packages. Do anything you can to help support this organization. The post office is one of the nation's largest employers of veterans and people of color (our mail carrier is a veteran and a woman of color). It delivers mail cheaply and efficiently to isolated locations all across the country. In this era of social distancing, it's keeping us supplied with all the essential products we can order online to keep ourselves safer. And the least we can do is support it in return.
I bought a few books of stamps yesterday, including some dragon ones I've had my eye on for a while. I have plenty of stamps so I might not use them for a while, but that's ok. It's enough to know that by buying them, I'm helping to ensure that I will be able to use them in the future.
Nationwide cases: 615,302. Deaths: 26,114.
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