Monday, August 17, 2020
In The Crosshairs
The US Postal Service is in the crosshairs of political and economic debate. Everyone agrees the giant agency is a budgetary disaster and isn't competing well with Federal Express or United Parcel Service. That's where unanimity stops. Postal unions insist it is not a business but an essential service for citizens. Congress should regularly pony up the money to keep it going. The Trump administration's Postmaster General wants to run it like an enterprise and stop the bleeding. The USPS should at least break even. Both sides have meritorious arguments but they are lost in an election year fraught with COVID-19 worries. The USPS has been retiring letter sorting machines because first-class mail has plummeted in the internet age. Unfortunately, those machines are needed to process voting by mail, which more states are doing in response to the pandemic. Republicans are on the back foot PR-wise in this debate. The Donkeys are charging the Elephants are sabotaging the upcoming presidential election, and they might be if the Postmaster General gets his way. Would the heat have been the same in a non-election year? Probably not. The USPS is slowly moving toward a package service as its market shifts, but it must continue to deliver first-class mail unlike its competitors. There are no good answers to its dilemma but in this election, it should concentrate on ballot delivery.
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