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Dear Friend,
The U.S. Postal Service is on the verge of bankruptcy at the very moment when we need it most.
But instead of helping the postal service like he did with the airlines and cruise-ship industry, Donald Trump is threatening to veto desperately needed legislation to keep the USPS alive.1
Not only would closing the postal service throw more than half a million people into unemployment, but it would squash vote-by-mail, disenfranchising millions of voters in November. Demand Progress has launched a campaign to save the U.S. Postal Service, and we need your help to make sure we reach as many voters as possible. Our democracy depends on it.
The idea of stopping the mail seems absurd—after all, the post office has been a cornerstone of our democracy more than two centuries. It's the second largest employer in the United States, with more than 600,000 essential workers.2,3 And for millions of Americans in remote areas, the U.S. Postal Service is the only lifeline to food and medicine.
Right now, as Americans stay home to stop the spread of coronavirus, they're depending on the postal service more than ever before. Unlike profit-hungry companies like FedEx and Amazon, the U.S. Postal Service doesn't cut off remote areas or charge exorbitant prices to deliver. It's the only delivery service that reaches every American residence, rain or shine.
But the post office is suffocating under debt, due to Republican efforts to bankrupt it out of existence during the George W. Bush administration. In that era, Congress put onerous financing requirements on the post office that were designed to force it to fail.4
Without a boost from the upcoming congressional stimulus bill, the U.S. Postal Service could collapse, eliminating hundreds of thousands of jobs during a historic unemployment crisis.
What's more, millions of Americans would suddenly lose affordable access to groceries, lifesaving medicines—and the guarantee of vote-by-mail come November.
There's huge energy right now across the country to stop Trump and his Republican allies from killing the postal service and undermining our elections. Demand Progress is fighting to deliver as many petition signatures as possible to Congress over the coming weeks and to lobby directly to stop this travesty.
Chip in now to Demand Progress and help save the U.S. Postal Service!
Thank you for taking action in this urgent moment.
Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress
Sources:
1. The Washington Post, "White House rejects bailout for U.S. Postal Service battered by coronavirus," April 11, 2020
2. U.S. Postal Service, "Working at USPS," accessed April 16, 2020
3. U.S. Postal Service, "Postal Facts," accessed April 16, 2020
The Week, "How George Bush broke the Post Office," April 16, 2018
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