Dear Friend,
The U.S. Postal Service is due to go bankrupt by the end of the summer due
to the pandemic—but Donald Trump is blocking funding, and called the post
office a "joke."^1
Now he has just named one of his top donors as the new head of the U.S.
Postal Service—putting the survival of this longtime service in mortal
danger.^2
Shutting down the postal service would throw more than 500,000 workers
onto unemployment—and undermine our efforts to expand vote-by-mail before
the November election. Demand Progress is fighting to save the U.S. Postal
Service, but we need your help to reach as many people as possible.
[ [link removed] ]Will you donate to Demand Progress to help save the U.S. Postal
Service—and our democracy?
There is no understating the damage that Trump’s donor friend Louis DeJoy
can do as postmaster general.
When Trump installed an ally as head of the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau, the agency’s work ground to a halt.^3 Under the Trump
administration’s lead, the Environmental Protection Agency has reversed
more than 100 rules, and has frozen the enforcement of the regulations
still in place.^4
Now Trump has his hands on the U.S. Postal Service, a 200-year-old
cornerstone of our democracy.
The postal service is buried in debt due to a 2006 law intended to
bankrupt it out of existence by placing ridiculous requirements on its
budget.^5 Now the agency is trying to negotiate with the White House for a
new line of credit, but Trump has already said that he won’t allow it
unless the service agrees to exorbitant price hikes and new business
practices that would be unsustainable.^6
In other words, Trump has laid out a plan to end the post office as we
know it—and the new person in charge is bound to help him implement that
plan.
Unlike FedEx and UPS, the postal service delivers mail to every postal
address in the country, no matter how remote or hard to reach. It provides
important communication avenues for the 14.5 million Americans who don’t
have broadband. Millions more receive their prescriptions through the
mail.^7
The post office is America’s favorite agency, with 91% of people wanting
to keep it in business.^8 We need to capitalize on that energy now and
stop Trump from killing the postal service and undermining our elections.
[ [link removed] ]Will you donate today to save the postal service and our democracy from
Donald Trump?
Thank you for taking action in this urgent moment.
Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress
[ [link removed] ]DONATE
Sources:
1. Politico, "Trump: Postal service is a 'joke' that must raise prices to
get bailout money," [ [link removed] ]April 24, 2020
2. The Washington Post, "Top Republican fundraiser and Trump ally named
postmaster general, giving president new influence over Postal Service,"
[ [link removed] ]May 6, 2020
3. The New York Times Magazine, "Mick Mulvaney’s Master Class in
Destroying a Bureaucracy From Within," [ [link removed] ]April 16, 2020
4. The New York Times, "The Trump Administration is Reversing Nearly 100
Environmental Rules. Here's the Full List.," [ [link removed] ]May 6, 2020
5. The Week, "How George Bush broke the Post Office," [ [link removed] ]April 16, 2018
6. Politico, "Trump: Postal service is a 'joke' that must raise prices to
get bailout money," [ [link removed] ]April 24, 2020
7. Vox, "If the US Postal Service fails, rural America will suffer the
most," [ [link removed] ]April 16, 2020
8. About USPS, "U.S. Postal Service Tops List Again as Americans’ Favorite
Government Agency," [ [link removed] ]April 15, 2020
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