Dear MoveOn member,

The motto of the United States Postal Service is, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."¹ What could stop them? Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

Last week, the Postmaster General warned that the Postal Service would run out of money by October because of a decline in the volume of mail shipped due to the coronavirus pandemic, which compounds the financial burdens that Republicans have already placed on the Postal Service. But Trump and his administration are refusing to provide any aid to keep the Postal Service running.² Trump even threatened to veto the congressional stimulus package if it included any aid to the Postal Service.³

Although the existence of the Postal Service is enshrined in our Constitution, Republicans have been maneuvering to shut it down for decades, and now Trump is jumping on the bandwagon. Why is the GOP determined to gut the Postal Service? The reason is simple: Republicans want to bankrupt the Postal Service to allow private equity firms and global corporations to privatize the service, dismantle the agency, and profit further off of the American people.

We cannot allow Republicans to succeed. Not only does the Postal Service employ more than 600,000 of our country's most essential workers—40% of whom are people of color—for many rural communities it is the only affordable service to deliver mail and packages. And as we head into the general election in a time when gathering at in-person polling locations remains uncertain, a strong Postal Service that can process hundreds of millions of vote-by-mail ballots is critical to the future of our democracy.^4,5

Will you chip in $3 now to help us run a digital ad campaign calling on Congress to include desperately needed aid to the United States Postal Service in the next stimulus package? Already, more than 100,000 MoveOn members have echoed the call to protect the Postal Service, and we need to amplify their voices to members of Congress who are deciding where to draw the lines for the next stimulus fight.

Republicans and their billionaire cronies have been working toward the bankruptcy and dismantling of the Postal Service for years. During the lame-duck session of the GOP-held Congress in 2006, the Bush administration pushed through a bill that forced the Postal Service to immediately set aside funding to pay retirement benefits for any current or future postal worker who could retire over the next 75 years.⁶ That unprecedented move, unlike anything that other agencies or private businesses are held to, amounted to over $100 billion and immediately put the Postal Service in debt.⁷

And now, in the midst of a pandemic, and while Postal Service workers are essential workers serving as some Americans' only lifeline by delivering food and medicine, Donald Trump, Steve Mnuchin, and Republicans in Congress are trying to bankrupt the Postal Service and allow private companies to take over.

That move would have disastrous implications. Already, private companies like UPS, FedEx, and Amazon refuse to deliver to remote and rural areas and rely on the Postal Service to complete those orders. Additionally, the Postal Service offers universal pricing and low-cost shipping options, but if private companies took over, they would certainly hike up prices and prevent low-income Americans from accessing essential services.

MoveOn is working to flood Congress with thousands of calls demanding that the Postal Service be fully funded in the next stimulus package, but we need your help.

John, will you chip in $3 right now to help us get our digital ad campaign up and running and stop Donald Trump from shutting down the United States Postal Service?

Thanks for all you do.

–Kelly, Seth, Jenn, Lisa, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "Postal Service Mission and 'Motto,'" United States Postal Service, accessed April 14, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119622?t=4&akid=261698%2E40999114%2EpmChQR

2. "White House rejects bailout for U.S. Postal Service battered by coronavirus," The Washington Post, April 11, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119602?t=6&akid=261698%2E40999114%2EpmChQR

3. Ibid.

4. "Workforce Diversity and Inclusiveness," United States Postal Service, accessed April 14, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119623?t=8&akid=261698%2E40999114%2EpmChQR

5. "U.S. Postal Service warns it could run out of money by October," CBS News, April 10, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119624?t=10&akid=261698%2E40999114%2EpmChQR

6. "The Manufactured 'Financial Crisis' of the U.S. Postal Service," MR Online, September 23, 2011
https://act.moveon.org/go/119625?t=12&akid=261698%2E40999114%2EpmChQR

7. Ibid.

Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?

Click here to chip in $3, or whatever you can afford.

PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

This email was sent to John xxxxxx on April 14, 2020. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.