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AUGUST

**21, 2020**

Kuttner on TAP

Will Pelosi Get Rolled on the Relief Bill?

****

Speaker Pelosi has called the House back into session Saturday to vote
on the Maloney bill that would roll back perverse changes made by
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy aimed at sabotaging vote-by-mail and the
Postal Service generally. So far, so good.

Then Pelosi added $25 billion in emergency funds for the Postal Service.
That may be a misstep, in two respects.

As my reporting showed, the post office does not need that money until
next year
.
According to its SEC filings, the USPS is sitting on $13 billion in
cash, backed by another $10 billion from the original CARES Act, as yet
unspent. The problem is DeJoy's deliberate sabotage, not a scarcity of
funds.

The first risk is that the Saturday debate bogs down into an argument
over how much money the USPS needs, rather than the need to reverse all
of the perverse management decisions.

The second risk is that the debate over the Postal Service crowds out
the even more consequential need to restore and expand public support
for continued federal supplemental unemployment aid, which has now
expired, as well as emergency aid to state and local governments, and
the other urgent elements in the $3.5 trillion HEROES Act, which has
been blocked by Trump and Senate Republicans.

Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have already signaled that they would settle
for $2 trillion, giving away much of their bargaining position

even before negotiations resume. It's just not possible that Congress
can act on both the postal bill and on the larger HEROES relief act in
one day. Negotiations with the White House and Mitch McConnell have been
suspended since August 7.

So unless Pelosi intends to keep the House in session longer, the risk
is that Republicans will make some kind of compromise

on the Postal Service, providing money but not all of the management
safeguards, and Congress will go home without acting on the HEROES Act.

Once again, Trump is crazy like a fox. He emulates another great
dictator, Chairman Mao, who famously said, "Two steps forward, one step
backward."

By creating an entirely artificial crisis at the Postal Service, and
then partly walking it back, Trump diverts attention from all the other
urgently needed parts of coronavirus relief, and sets up giving the
Democrats half a victory that at best merely restores the status quo,
leaves over 30 million workers without relief-and leaves both parties
looking like they should share the blame.

Democrats, coming off a triumphant virtual convention, have to do better
than this.

~ 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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Unconventional: The Democrats, Day Four

Biden may not be woke, but he's certainly not sleepy. BY HAROLD
MEYERSON

What We Learned From the Senate Hearing on the Postal Service

The evidence points to a failure of business management. BY DAVID
DAYEN

USPS Can Deliver If the Trump Administration Gets Out of the Way

The American Postal Workers Union president responds to the disruption
of mail service around the country and concerns about voting by mail.
BY GABRIELLE GURLEY

Is Vote-by-Mail a Trap for Democrats? An Exchange.

Roy Greenwald and Robert Kuttner propose solutions to the Postal Service
crisis. BY ROY F. GREENWALD & ROBERT KUTTNER

Voting for Our Lives

For Latino voters, changing the nation's rhetoric is a matter of life
and death. BY ALEX J. ROUHANDEH

Will Joe Biden Keep Michigan Blue?

In 2018, voters chose moderate and progressive Democratic women for key
state and federal offices. The presidential election could solidify that
trend. BY SHERA AVI-YONAH

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