USPS shutting down by June?

While I think this is a bit of political drama... the US Postal Service said this week they may have to shut down in June after getting no aid in the $2.2 trillion stimulus while seeing massive declines during the pandemic.

While the USPS has been in bad financial straits for many years, an estimated 80% of their debt is because of Republican attempts to kill them by requiring they pre-fund all their retirement debt (something no other public or private agency has to do).

But I'd say this is something we need to pay attention to, especially in an election year. Democratic states are far more likely to have a substantial portion- if not their entire election done by mail.

Add to this the reality that a huge portion of the relief payments are going to be mailed. Many social services rely on mailing checks. Many seniors rely on medicines through the mail. Hell- Amazon relies on their partnership with the USPS - and both UPS and Fed-Ex rely on them for the "final mile" delivery of millions of packages.

Then there's the census- which relies heavily on USPS. Which allocates, I believe ~$1800 for every man, woman, and child to the states.

Then there's your general mail Your bills (which even in this electronic age, will hit the poor and elderly hardest).

On the right- especially the far right, there's long been a desire to kill the USPS and privatize it. On the left- esp the far left- there's long been a desire to expand it- turn it to a bank for the underserved much like in parts of Europe.

Regardless- let's pay attention and make sue the post office continues to exist- especially to serve the poor and the rural areas of our country. Even a temporary shutdown of it would be devastating at this time.