A reminder, y'all: the supposed financial crisis at the Postal Service was COMPLETELY MANUFACTURED by a Republican Congress. In 2006, the House run by Dennis Hastert and the Senate run by Bill Frist passed a law explicitly designed to cripple the service. 1/8

That law required the Postal Service to prefund 75 years of retiree health benefits, setting up an onerous schedule of payments. No other arm of the federal government and NO PRIVATE BUSINESS has to do this. 2/8

All other organizations get to pay retiree health costs as part of current budgets. There was no logical reason to force Postal Service to do otherwise, unless you happen to hate the Postal Service. 3/8

Why do Republicans hate the Postal Service? I can't quite figure it out, but it is a national institution that Americans rely on and that worked well for most of our history, so it shows a beneficent face of the federal government. 4/8

If you're an ideologue who hates all government, the Postal Service is a thorn in your side. This stupid '06 law has weakened the service and caused deteriorating service, which might have been the goal all along. 5/8

It is sort of incredible that Democrats have got to spend political energy defending and trying to save such an important national institution (set up by Ben Franklin!) but that is where we are. 6/8

Reporters really, really need to do a better job of explaining this recent history. I don't think the retirees and veterans who get their checks and medicines through the mail would like it if they truly understood it, and understood exactly who was responsible. 7/8

Here is a good report explaining this sabotage of the Postal Service, and options for fixing it. Ought to be high on priority list if Democrats take control in this election, which will depend on the Postal Service as no other has. 8/8 https://ips-dc.org/how-congress-manufactured-a-postal-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/