Could coronavirus deal a fatal blow to the U.S. Postal Service?
For this reason, Kevin Kosar, an executive at the R Street Institute think tank who spent over 10 years covering postal issues for the Congressional Research Service, can’t imagine Trump letting the service shut down.
“It would be devastating to rural areas where there are lots of Republican voters,” he said. “Also, it’s an open secret that lots of Republicans vote by mail, the president votes by mail and elderly supporters of Trump get meds by mail.”
As The New York Times pointed out in an editorial Wednesday supporting rescue efforts, the Postal Service provides an essential service “critical to American democracy,” particularly during a pandemic in a year of the census and a presidential election.
Kosar sees Trump’s unwillingness to offer an immediate bailout as part of a negotiating tactic. He noted that Trump’s own postal reform commission issued a report last year with moderate recommendations and “nothing wild” such as complete privatization.
“It’s a political game of chicken,” Rubio said of the situation. “If House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the Democrats stick to a $25 billion bailout demand for the USPS this time around with the latest stimulus package, it would save the USPS … from having to cut service, slash jobs, mortgage its assets, or prioritize payments to vendors while holding others back.”
Rubio said getting through this pandemic means keeping the postal service intact, not just airlines, hotels and restaurants.
Aid could come in several forms, suggested Kosar, including buyouts for postal workers, limiting paper mail delivery to just five days a week, or helping the agency cover the costs of its underfunded health benefits fund.
However, he noted that the Postal Service is unique.
“Unlike the typical government agency, it was set up to be self-funding. That’s why when the rest of the government goes through a shutdown, it keeps plugging along because it self funds,” he said. “If the USPS does run out of cash and if it has fully tapped its borrowing limit and can’t raise cash by selling some assets rapidly, then it will have to close.”
Since it’s a government agency, he doesn’t see any way to put it through a bankruptcy proceeding. Without assistance, “there’s no plan B.”
