The United States Postal Service is struggling to survive. It’s been in danger for years, constantly reaching for a lifeline, but now add in coronavirus and it’s sinking fast.
And The New York Times says help needs to come fast, “the United States Postal Service appealed to lawmakers on Thursday for an $89 billion lifeline, telling them that it could run out of cash by the end of September if Congress fails to act.”
As a result, the Postal Service is projecting a $13 billion revenue shortfall this fiscal year because of the pandemic and another $54 billion in losses over 10 years.
While certain mail, such as advertising, may be down during this crisis, a lot of us are relying on things that come via mail more than ever. NPR writes:
During the coronavirus pandemic, its services, which have been deemed essential, are more vital than ever, says Mark Dimondstein, president of the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union.
“Just think about: In this pandemic, information is going into people’s homes on health. Medicines are going into people’s homes through the post office,” he says. “Even in ordinary times, there’s 1.2 billion packages of medicine.”
Looking further ahead this year, the postal service is expected to play a very important role in the election, so it’s vital to stay afloat. This could be one reason Donald Trump isn’t jumping to help the USPS. For obvious reasons, there is expected to be a record amount of mailed-in ballots this November. Trump believes mail-in ballots work against him, so earlier this week he said: “There’s a lot of dishonesty going along with mail-in voting.” On Twitter he added, “and for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well for Republicans.”
