Read on Twitter
1/ Learn more about the @USPS, its leadership and Louis DeJoy in Bill's conversation with Lisa Graves about how Charles Koch marked the Postal Service for privatization in the early 1970s and how he is using the Koch empire to push his political agenda to this day. https://twitter.com/nprpolitics/status/1355190244178538499
2/ She pointed to a recent report she authored for @PubInterest about Koch's efforts to popularize the fringe idea of privatizing the Postal Service and to capture the agency. https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/the-billionaire-behind-efforts-to-kill-the-usps/
3/ When regulatory capture occurs, a special interest is prioritized over the general interests of the public. In 2006, one of his pro-privatization allies "James Miller was rewarded with a post on the Board of Governors for the Postal Service."
4/ "And from that perch in 2006, he pushed through this bill called the Postal Accountability and Efficiency Act, the PAEA, which really has dramatically harmed our Postal Service."
5/ Some people might say that they were trying to assure the failure of the Postal Service with the bill, which loaded it with burdens for the future that are not asked of any other government agency.
6/ The bill did three things. It required the @USPS to fully fund decades of potential healthcare benefits in advance. It limited the Postal Service from raising the cost for the first-class stamp by about a penny a year, throttling its potential for revenue artificially.
7/ And then the third thing it did was it barred the Postal Service from offering banking services or other commercial services that would compete with the private sector, even though the Postal Service historically had been involved in some banking operations.
8/ Lisa Graves: "You can call it an accountability and efficiency act, but it really was an effort to undermine, fatally undermine our U.S. Postal Service."
9/ Then during the Obama years, Mitch McConnell wasn’t just blocking President Obama’s judicial nominees (and then packing the courts when Trump became president), he was also blocking appointments to this Board of Postal Governors.
10/ For five years, the Board of Governors did not have a quorum due to Mitch McConnell’s obstruction. But as soon as Trump became president, McConnell began filling these posts.
11/ And, in fact, with respect to Mr. DeJoy, he’s the first postmaster general who does not come within the ranks of the Postal Service. He was hired for this position by this packed, stacked board at this time to lead this Postal Service.
12/ As some in Congress are now calling for President Biden to "clean house" and replace all the Board and DeJoy, learn more about the 40-year plot to privatize the @USPS in my conversation with Lisa Graves: https://billmoyers.com/story/bill-moyers-talks-with-lisa-graves-about-the-ongoing-threat-to-the-us-postal-service/ .../END
