Democrats Criticize Trump Over United States Postal Service Funding

From The Center Square:

By Kevin Bessler

Illinois Democrats used part of the party's state convention on Monday to attack Republicans, specifically President Donald Trump.

The convention is being held virtually because of the pandemic. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin made a surprise appearance during a briefing on Monday and brought up Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

“It is only when the politicians, like the current Postmaster General to show up, and start cutting overtime, removing mailboxes, warning that they will be unable to deliver ballots on time, that America comes to realize that this postal service is under assault by Donald Trump,” Durbin said.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has implemented changes that he said were intended to stabilize the post office, including crackdowns on overtime pay as well as an overhaul of agency leadership, moves Trump agrees with.

“He wants to make the post office great again,” Trump said. “The post office is a catastrophe.”

The U.S. Postal Service, which at one time was a self-sufficient service, has been mired in red ink. The Government Accountability Office wrote in a May report that the agency's "current business model is not financially sustainable.”

The Postal Service has lost $78 billion since 2007, the report said.

Federal funding for the post office has become a central sticking point in the White House’s negotiations with Democrats over an additional coronavirus relief package. Democrats propose another round of stimulus should include $25 billion for the Postal Sevice and $3.6 billion in election funding.

Trump has said he opposes those items and has suggested he can stop efforts to expand mail-in voting by denying those funds.

The focus of the work of The Center Square Illinois is state- and local-level government and economic reporting that approaches stories with a taxpayer sensibility. For more stories from The Center Square, visit TheCenterSquare.com.