The lawsuit filed last week by @NewYorkStateAG Letitia James against @USPS reads more like a 64-page list of talking points than a serious legal document—but that didn’t stop her colleagues in NJ, HI, NYC, and San Francisco from joining the suit... 🧵
This colossal waste of taxpayer dollars also further politicizes what should be a sober, nonpartisan debate on how best to solve the Postal Service’s financial problems.
Those problems are huge.
.@USPS stands to lose billions this year and faces bankruptcy as early as next year.
Without congressional action, bankruptcy seems inevitable.
Unfortunately, sober debate has been lost in a fog of misinformation and conspiracy theories—made worse by @NewYorkStateAG's filing
The lawsuit alleges that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who took office on June 16, is altering Postal Service policies to hamper the delivery of mail-in ballots for this year’s election.
It's very important to note that these claims are nonsense.
The volume of letter mail has steadily declined for two decades and now stands at less than half what it was in 2001.
As volume has fallen, @USPS has steadily reduced inventory of sorting machines and collection boxes—under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
The charge that DeJoy is responsible for starting the removal of collection boxes and sorting machines is thus wrong on two fronts:
First, the removals are part of a long-term process to cut costs and keep @USPS financially sustainable.
Second, this year’s removals were approved or underway prior to DeJoy’s arrival.
In fact, the only order he has given regarding them is to HALT further removals.
The lawsuit also alleges that @USPS is pushing state and local governments to use more expensive first-class postage for all mail-in ballots.
This claim stems from a guidance letter that was drafted before DeJoy started.
The carefully worded guidance merely says that first-class postage might be more appropriate in cases of last-minute ballot requests.
When similar guidance was issued before other elections, no eyebrows were raised.
The only significant policy change implemented by DeJoy relates to a dry but vitally important aspect of the Postal Service: logistics.
An IG report pointed out that delivery trucks getting a late start was causing an increasing amount of expensive overtime pay.
Acting on the report, DeJoy implemented a pilot program to emphasize on-time departures, which had the potential to generate significant savings.
In the following weeks, there was a drop in on-time mail delivery. Some of this was caused by DeJoy’s program, which he has ended.
However, a June spike in nationwide COVID-19 cases also harmed deliveries—with places such as Philadelphia at times being short hundreds of drivers.
Placing the blame on DeJoy and claiming that the slowdown was evidence of deliberate sabotage is extraordinarily unfair.
Thus, the lawsuit appears to be merely an exercise in election-year messaging—and a waste of time and resources.
Meanwhile, as both parties devote energy to either demonizing or defending DeJoy, @USPS moves closer to insolvency.
A bill passed by the House 8/22 would hand USPS a $25 billion check. Unfortunately, that bill also blocks many reforms that would reduce future deficits...
... meaning that the threat of bankruptcy would return in a few years.
Rather than a bailout financed by adding to the $26.5 trillion national debt, Congress should work on legislation to reform the Postal Service based on 21st century reality.
This could include reducing or eliminating unfunded mandates, giving @USPS more control over costs such as employee compensation, and providing greater flexibility to raise additional revenue.
Unfortunately, saving the Postal Service will be next to impossible if officials insist on using it as a political prop.
Dropping the lawsuit would be a good first step toward reducing the unnecessary and unhelpful amount of tension surrounding the issue.
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Yes, the Social Security retirement age should be raised. If Congress does nothing, benefits will be cut by 21% across the board beginning in 2033. heritage.org/social-securit…
Simply raising taxes to prevent these benefit cuts would require Social Security’s 12.4% tax rate to rise, immediately, to somewhere between 15.7% and 17.5% —the equivalent of an extra $2,500 to $3,800 per year in taxes for the median household.
Raising taxes only on the wealthy would require a top combined federal and state income tax rate of 66 percent. And that wouldn’t include a dime towards Medicare’s even larger shortfalls or the federal government’s annual multi-trillion-dollar budget shortfalls.
The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove former President Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot is a “nakedly partisan, anti-democratic decision that ignores the law and prior precedent.”
@HvonSpakovsky explains🧵
“Under the text and history of the 14th Amendment, as well as court precedent, Trump is not disqualified from running for office for numerous reasons.
First, Section 3 of the 14 Amendment applies only to individuals who were previously a ‘member of Congress,’ an ‘officer of the United States,’ or a state official. Individuals who are elected—such as the president and vice president—are not officers within the meaning of Section 3.
Second, no federal court has convicted Trump of engaging in ‘insurrection or rebellion.’ In fact, the Senate acquitted Trump of that charge in his second impeachment.
1/🚨EXPOSED: @theMRC has uncovered a DHS anti-terrorism program that's been weaponized against conservatives.
80 grants & 39.6 million taxpayer dollars later, here's a look at how @JoeBiden & @SecMayorkas are outsourcing their efforts to conflate conservatives with terrorists🧵
2/ @univofdayton is one of the most radical grant recipients for the program, receiving $352k to fight "domestic violent extremism and hate movements."
Biden's @DHSgov awarded the grant despite their application including this fallacious chart.
Here's how their seminars went...
3/ One of their first seminars featured @DHSgov Agent Joseph Masztalics, who emphasized their whole of society approach means "at DHS, we only support, locals lead."
This suggests those DHS chooses to fund are compatible with their vision of leading on "anti-terrorism."
1. GOP won’t negotiate & will make America hit the debt ceiling.
The House passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which would increase the debt limit while cutting spending.
Rather than start bipartisan negotiations, Democrats have not taken any meaningful action whatsoever.
2. Biden can raise the debt ceiling unilaterally because of a provision of the 14th Amendment.
The provision referred to by the Biden admin was meant to ensure that if the federal government issues debt, a future POTUS or act of Congress cannot render it void.
🧵🧵: Joe Biden's making a speech today about the border crisis that he, @SecMayorkas, and the open-borders advocates in his administration have caused.
Expecting lots of blame-shifting and dishonesty. Buckle up...
Well that didn't take long. Biden's already blaming Republicans for not passing his "comprehensive immigration reform," which is just code for amnesty.
Biden claims we don't have enough asylum officers. Well that's a circular argument, because millions more people are coming to the border and clogging up the system thanks to Biden's own policies!
👀🧵: NEW numbers obtained by Mark Morgan show some shocking facts about the disaster at the border in December.
To start, Border Patrol saw 226,050 apprehensions. That brings the FY23 total to 640,000+ in just three months--200,000 more than FY2020 total. #BidenBorderCrisis
There's more. When you factor in the "inadmissibles," i.e., those encountered at ports of entry (many of whom are also released into the interior), you're looking at around 300,000 encounters in December.
That means we're looking at more than 857,000 total encounters so far this fiscal year. Again, that's in just *90 DAYS*.
At this pace, that's around 3.5 million encounters this fiscal year.