Landmark Legislation To Reform The Postal Service Bans Postal Banking
Republicans will do anything to starve the USPS if they can hide it in a big bill.
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Congress has just passed yet another bill to reform the United States Postal Service. I saw the headlines, and all I could think of was “postal banking”. I thought about that ridiculous law that requires the Postal Service to finance 75 years of retirement benefits, too. And I figured for sure they’d cut services since the GOP can’t wait to hand off the Postal Service to their biggest donors.
I was wrong. Mostly.
Congress repealed the rule that requires the Postal Service to fund 75 years of retirement benefits. Finally. No company anywhere has ever done that for anyone. That 75-year rule had only one purpose: to starve the Postal Service of money. The GOP loves to starve the Postal Service of money, it’s in their blood. That’s how they show their base how serious they are about their love for the “free market”.
Happily, the bill, now heading to Joe Biden’s desk, will require 6 days of mail delivery service every week save for holidays and natural disasters. Republicans in Congress must have realized that they might have constituents that depend on mail service, have poor or no internet access (insert free market here), and still write checks to pay their bills. Many of them still get Social Security checks in the mail.
Here’s the part that really irks me about that bill, as reported by Cnet:
According to the nonprofit consumer rights group Public Citizen, Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, added an amendment to the act that bans postal banking — including money orders. which the USPS sold $21 billion worth of in 2015, the most recent year data is available for.
That amendment was buried in the bill and in the news. I searched for articles about that provision of the reform bill and didn’t find much.
The GOP doesn’t want the USPS to make any money. Screw the USPS, right Mr. Toomey? God forbid that the Postal Service might help the millions of unbanked people in places where banks fear to tread. Banking deserts are cool in GOPland. Toomey’s amendment to the Postal Service Reform Act suggests that poor…
