The Trump administration has differed from previous administrations, both Democratic and Republican, by breaking unwritten norms, attacking vital institutions and systematically weakening, or rendering dysfunctional, checks and balances essential to a functioning democracy. This dangerous process has been enabled by congressional Republican supporters, particularly Senate Republicans
Trump’s current attack on the U.S. Postal Service is the latest example. This attack on the USPS is not new, as Conservatives have long wished to privatize mail services.
For starters, Conservatives generally favor private institutions over public institutions, even when a public institution is best suited to serve the public interest. Furthermore, the USPS is unionized, and provides employment leading to Middle Class status to a disproportionate number of minorities and veterans relative to the population. Along with anti-labor, anti-union philosophy, Conservatives insist that the postal service is rife with “inefficiency.”
Although the USPS was never intended to be a profit-making institution, it is expected to cover its costs, while providing services that a profit-making business would never be expected to do. Imagine a profit-making business sending a letter from Key Largo, Florida to Fairbanks, Alaska for 55 cents; or a card from New York City to Pawnee Rock, Kansas for a measly 35 cents. It would not happen.
Unlike private delivery services, the USPS cannot cherry pick the most profitable routes. It was intended to provide public service, to bind the country together from heavily populated urban areas to the remotest corners and most sparsely populated parts of the nation. Private delivery services can cherry pick profitable routes, and appear to be “efficient” only because the USPS covers the unprofitable routes that serve the entire nation. So let’s abandon the empty rhetoric that the USPS is “inefficient” because it struggles to cover costs that no private institution could begin to accomplish.
Another key reason why the USPS struggles financially is that, unlike any other public agency, a 2016 law mandated the USPS to prefund retirement health benefits for the next 75 years. Absent of that requirement, the USPS insists that, even with the restrictions under which it operates, it is covering its costs.
As it has affected many other enterprises, COVID-19 has put additional financial strain on the USPS. The approaching November presidential election and the possibility of a Trump defeat have put the USPS in the spotlight. With social distancing recommended by public health officials and scientists, many voters intend to vote by mail. While some states exclusively vote by mail, surveys show that in states where it is optional, more Democrats than Republicans expect to vote by mail rather than in person. Therefore, it is entirely logical that Trump, whose polling numbers are marginal at best, has the incentive to discourage voting by mail. And, to the extent that many voters — possibly, even likely, more Democrats than Republicans — would vote by mail, Trump has further incentive to prevent the USPS from accomplishing timely delivery, or to the extent that the ballots are delivered, prevent those votes from being counted — declaring them, “late,” “illegal,” “fraudulent” or otherwise invalid.
The most troublesome scenario would be for Trump to initially lead in the early vote, but need to wait until the late votes are counted before the winner can be declared. Given Trump’s history of insisting that even with his 2016 victory, he declared Hillary Clinton’s popular majority as” fraudulent,” he would surely try to discredit Democratic mail-in votes as invalid.
So with marginal polling numbers, Trump names a Republican mega donor, Louis DeJoy, as Postmaster General. DeJoy leads off by sacking or transferring 23 USPS executives, removes a slew of neighborhood collection boxes, removes or decommissions labor-saving sorting devices, and changes operating procedures that have resulted in a slow-down of mail delivery. With needed supplementary COVID-19 related expenses, Trump openly and brazenly admits that “if they don’t get the money, the USPS can’t deliver on vote-by mail.” Therefore, don’t give them the money.
How can a president get away with openly declaring that he intends to impair ability of the USPS to accomplish a task that would ostensibly favor his opponent?
That’s easy. He has already gotten away with sordid deeds, too numerous to list here, that would have sunk, and ended careers, of any other politician. With every such deed he gets away with, he is encouraged to take the next step, to even openly interfere with an election, or that fails, cast doubt on, or delegitimize validity of, the next election in case he loses.
Our own Senator Ron Johnson, as Chair of the Homeland Security Committee, is one of the half dozen of the nation’s powerful people best able to weigh in on these matters. Instead of holding DeJoy to account, Johnson is acting as Trump’s “enabler in chief.”
Regarding the recent Senate hearings, Johnson stated that he was giving Dejoy a platform to preempt next week’s hearing hosted by more hostile House Democrats. Johnson and other Republicans insist that this is “just another Democratic political attack.” The slowdown in mail service since DeJoy took over is real. It’s Johnson who is doing the politicizing and not doing his job. For this, he should be severely chastised by the press and by Wisconsin voters.
The one DeJoy action that is possibly defensible is the removal of some neighborhood collection boxes, a process that has been going on for some time, based on decreased use. However rational, its politically myopic timing simply demonstrates the extent to which Trump believes he can get away with such a politically obtuse move — and so far, he has.
DeJoy insists that the removed automatic sorting machines are not necessary. Yet to be explained is how their removal contributes to efficiency. Or, how reducing overtime for a labor force wreaked by COVID-19 enhances “efficiency.”
Under pressure, DeJoy promises not to take any further such measures. But the damage has already been done.
— John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Saturdays in the Monroe Times.
