Sunday Morning Post (V.2, #16) – President Petty and Vindictive Strikes Again*

How is it that many of us could see what the 2016 election of a grifter to the Presidency would mean for American democracy, and yet how could we not be able to imagine the depths which he is taking this country?

We realized rather early one that the Orange One was not suitable for high office.  His record as a business man should have tipped us all off: six bankruptcies in his career and driving countless other contractors out of business when he refused to pay his bills. This idea or casino didn’t work out?  Oh well, have the lawyer draw up papers to pay creditors some of what was owed, shrug the shoulders and walk away.

Bankruptcy is usually more devastating for a typical middle-class American.  Aside from the stigma of failure (in America no less) comes the loss of available credit for years.  The average American cannot just walk away from losing all that they have worked for. Millionaires and billionaires can afford to smile and wave.

Yet that appears to be what the President is preparing to do as he drives America into the ground.

Never mind his vendetta against WHO at a time when all countries need to cooperate with each other to conquer the common enemy.  President P&V's actions will only exacerbate the pandemic, which will only complicate the recovery of the America economy.

Congress leapt into action with passing a few, dare we say borderline socialistic, measures to alleviate the economic pain most American workers.  This is all well and good, except that President P&V has specifically singled out the US Postal Service as not eligible for an economic rescue to stave off bankruptcy unless they agree to raise shipping rates for Amazon, which is owned by one of the President’s arch enemies, Jeff Bezos.

The President is actually suggesting a raise in parcel shipping of four times what they are now.  The trouble is that when the US Postal Service raises rates, they don’t do it scatter shot to affect just one sector of the economy.  They have in the past raised rates uniformly across the board to be fair to everyone.  This would mean a fourfold rate increase of not only shipping packages, but also regular mail services.

Currently the cost of a single postage stamp is 50 cents.  My Fellow Americans, are you prepared to pay $2.00 for a single postage stamp???

So, let’s imagine the worst-case scenario of this maneuver.  The US Postal Service does not get aid they need, they declare bankruptcy, and they are forced to lay off their entire force of postal workers: all 600,000 postal workers.

More people on unemployment who eventually may have to declare bankruptcy and default on their mortgages, which will hit the banks, which will create a potentially endless series of ripple effects on other sections of the economy.  

And that is just the economic effect.   What about the interruption of mail delivery on which the US has become dependent for the last 200 plus years? Grandmom and granddad won’t get their catalogs to order necessary items or their magazines to inform and entertain them if they do not have computers or internet service for the online versions.  The Post Office’s competitors at FedEx and USPS allegedly do not have the infrastructure in place to take up the slack.

The exchange of Christmas and birthday cards will become nothing more than a quaint reminder of America’s Norman Rockwellian past.   Local politicians have used the Postal Service to send out flyers and pamphlets about upcoming elections and the issues which a well-educated electorate has a right to know.  That will stop.  Putting the Postal Service out of business will put a serious crimp in political parties ability to reach out to the voters.

Are you listening, GOP? Think about these consequences carefully. You’re only hurting yourselves when you allow President P&V to shrug his shoulders and walk away from the disaster he created for America.

*Or How About a $2 Postage Stamp, America?

(Thank you for reading.  For the record, I adore Rockwell and all that he immortalized in his work.)