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AUGUST

**14, 2020**

Kuttner on TAP

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****

Trump's statement on Fox News that he is deliberately starving the
Postal Service in order to thwart vote-by-mail efforts

that might help Democrats ranks right up there with his televised plea
to Putin to provide him dirt on Hillary Clinton and his claim that he
could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue.

Far from operating by stealth, Trump is broadcasting his scheme to
undermine the election, taking the Postal Service hostage in the
process, and daring his opponents to do anything about it. It's the
ultimate "F*** You." Suppose Trump murdered the Postal Service in broad
daylight, would anyone care? Could anyone stop him?

You would think that the small towns and small businesses whose
lifeblood is the Postal Service, and who are represented mostly by
Republicans, might care. But for the most part, the Republicans whose
constituents are harmed have been deafeningly silent. Once again,
partisan loyalty to Trump and the goal of keeping power by any means
trump both principle and loyalty to constituents.

Trump later half-walked back his comments and said they were just a
negotiating tactic to bring Nancy Pelosi back to the table. But that was
typically disingenuous, since Trump is far from negotiating anything
remotely reasonable.

The damage has already begun, big-time, as David Dayen reports
.

So what can defenders of the Postal Service and the right to vote do?

Not much. They can make this grotesque destruction of a vital public
service a major election issue, especially in states where Republicans
are in tight races, in the hope of pressuring Republicans to sway Trump.
So far, several such Republican senators, including Susan Collins
,
Steve Daines, and Lisa Murkowski
, have put out
statements suggesting discomfort with the war on the Postal Service. But
if the right to vote is thwarted and election results are warped, then
any gains could be hollow.

They can file suit and investigate Trump's corrupt henchman,
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. But it's hard to imagine that any of
this will cut loose sufficient funds by Election Day. The bollixed
results of vote-by-mail in several recent primaries are not reassuring.

Conceivably, the Federal Reserve could revise its Main Street Lending
Program, which has been repeatedly tweaked, to qualify the Postal
Service for loans. They're already supporting much of Wall Street.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post
,
half-joking, arguing that citizens should thwart Trump's plan by
donning masks and voting in person. The Democrats should keep fighting
like hell to get the Postal Service funded, but it may come to that.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

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Plus, don't pass the RESTAURANTS Act. This is The COVID-19 Daily
Report for August 14, 2020. BY DAVID DAYEN

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