This weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hastily called back members of the House of Representatives early from the August recess (if “call back” means anything in an era of remote voting). As odd as that was, it also came right smack in the middle of the quadrennial party convention exercises (virtual though they be) and despite Democrats across the country being shrill Karens about not taking needless COVID-19 travel risks.
What could possibly have been of such importance? A new response to the coronavirus pandemic? Aid to small businesses or families struggling with lockdowns mostly imposed by Democratic governors and mayors? The riots perpetrated in the name of antifa and Black Lives Matter by what the media call “mostly peaceful” protesters?
Would you believe Pelosi actually called everyone back to supposedly save the U.S. Postal Service from President Trump?
Over the past couple of weeks, elected Democrats, online liberal activists, and a stenographic media have invented a conspiracy theory out of whole cloth — that Trump is trying to destroy the Postal Service with the aim of stealing the 2020 election (how this is happening seems less important than the unfounded assertion and demands for explanation). There have been modern-day star chamber hearings via Zoom featuring a clearly outgunned and gobsmacked Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
Not coincidentally, the American Postal Workers Union endorsed Joe Biden for president in June, and the National Association of Letter Carriers followed suit in August. Democrats have been touting a vote-by-mail plan that will result in massive voter fraud, as evidenced by early beta tests in New Jersey and Rhode Island. It’s clear that mail-in voting will not work and will result in ballots being cast illegally (for Democrats). A conspiracy theory is being cooked up this summer to cover it all up and deflect blame for the banana republic shenanigans that will inevitably result.
In addition, making up a false crisis out of whole cloth and then demanding a solution for it comes with a price tag. The Pelosi vote this weekend would give the post office a $25 billion slush fund if it became law — this on top of the $10 billion line of credit the Postal Service was awarded as part of the CARES Act and the manifold other bailouts House Democrats planned to give the service in their “HEROES Act” earlier this summer.
It’s a classic of the “wag the dog” genre of community organizer politics: Create a crisis from nothing, demand that your opponent solve the phony crisis, and then come up with a solution that meets your political ends.
No government agency deserves a massive taxpayer bailout less than the Postal Service. It made more money during the coronavirus than in the comparable period last year. It has had a 13-year string of operating losses totaling more than $70 billion (not only pre-dating Trump but even during President Barack Obama’s time in office). The balance sheet is negative, upside down to the tune of $62 billion and climbing thanks to unfunded pension and healthcare obligations. No wonder when the Postal Service came looking for a $75 billion bailout, Trump dismissed the request as a “joke.”
No business in the real world would ever survive this record without going bankrupt. You can’t run an operation on 13 years of deficits with a balance sheet that makes the Social Security trust fund look healthy and politicians monkeying around with everyday business decisions and operations.
As long as Congress is taking a look at the Postal Service, it ought to ask itself what role it has played in its economic troubles. Congress won’t let the post office stop delivering to remote areas, won’t let them stop delivering on Saturday, won’t let them close low-traffic post office buildings, and won’t let them charge more to package companies like Amazon. The postal unions and congressional Democrats have fought tooth and nail against any attempt to modernize postal pensions, such as transitioning them from defined benefit to 401(k)-style defined contribution arrangements like almost everyone else has.
These are the problems of the Postal Service, not conspiracy theories dreamed up on Twitter and shared breathlessly by blue check marks in the liberal media. They certainly were not invented by Trump, as their roots go back decades. Some in Congress get this — Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, and House Oversight Committee Ranking Member James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, come to mind.
But most members of Congress would rather bury their heads in the sand than do the hard work of postal reform. Even more depressing is this recent effort by congressional Democrats not only to dodge the real issues with the Postal Service but also to use its ineptitude as a smokescreen for election fraud against Trump.
Ryan Ellis (@RyanLEllis) is president of the Center for a Free Economy.
