I was wondering why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her cadre of progressive socialist democrats would attempt a “dumb move” to add billions of dollars in non-essential items to a “must-pass” coronavirus emergency bill…

Of course, the short answer is politics and the need to assuage the public employee unions who fund the progressive socialist democrats. Especially since their candidate for the presidency is likely to be a physically and mentally-impaired individual who cannot speak coherently on any subject and who substitutes anger for knowledge. 

SARA HAINES, ABC 'THE VIEW' CO-HOST: In Hot Topics, we talked about Trump saying the government would reassess the recommended period for keeping businesses shut and keep people at home. At you at all concerned as Trump said that we cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself?

JOE BIDEN: We have to take care of the cure that will make the problem worse no matter what.

Huh?  

House coronavirus spending bill gives USPS $25B, wipes slate on its Treasury debt

House Democrats unveiled a coronavirus stimulus spending package on Monday night that would give the Postal Service $25 billion over the next two years to withstand an expected loss in mail revenue.

The $2.5 trillion Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act is the third and largest emergency funding bill lawmakers have introduced to mitigate the pandemic’s strain on the economy and the health system.

In addition to setting aside $25 billion for USPS until September 2022, the 1,400-page bill would also forgive the Postal Service’s $11 debt to the Treasury Department and allow the agency to borrow another $15 billion. The bill would also eliminate a $3 billion annual borrowing limit for this line of credit from Treasury.

“The Postal Service is in need of urgent help as a direct result of the coronavirus crisis. Based on a number of briefings and warnings this week about a critical fall-off in mail across the country, it has become clear that the Postal Service will not survive the summer without immediate help from Congress and the White House,” House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Government Operations Subcommittee Chair Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said in a statement. <Source>

It appears that the real crisis has nothing to do with the current coronavirus pandemic, but the fact that the politicians got caught with their grubby hands in the cookie jar and cannot figure out a way to replace those funds without taxpayer assistance. And, President Donald Trump had nothing to do with the crisis at the Postal Service.

It all started with a theft of funds and dodgy accounting…

2011- Twisted Government Accounting Behind Postal Service Woes

You might have heard that the United States Postal Service is in trouble: that it's losing billions, that it will have to end Saturday service and close branches — and most inflammatory, that it might need a government bailout. Perhaps you heard that the Postal Service couldn't pay $5.5 billion bill that came due Sept. 30 and that only an emergency postponement saved it from the government's equivalent of default.

In fact, it's the Postal Service that’s currently bailing out the U.S. government. Politicians have been raiding Postal Service revenues for years, using them to make the federal deficit appear smaller than it really is. The fiscal gyrations are so twisted that the Postal Service is right now forced to pre-pay health care benefits for employees the agency hasn't even hired yet — in fact, for many future employees who haven't even been born yet — all to artificially shrink the federal deficit.

It's these crushing accounting tricks, not the cost of delivering mail, that has pushed this 200-year-old institution to the brink.

Welcome to the wacky world of Washington, D.C., accounting.

There's a long and a short story to the tragic tale of Postal Service financial trouble. I'll start with the short one. Right now, the Postal Service is being forced to pre-pay health benefits for the next 75 years during a 10-year stretch. In the past four years, those prepayments have totaled $21 billion. The agency's deficit during that time is about $20 billion. Remove these crazy pre-payments — a requirement that no other government agency endures and no private industry would even consider — and the Postal Service would be in the black.

“It is clear that these prepayments for future retiree health care benefits are — at this point — the primary reason for the U.S. Postal Service's financial crisis,” Ralph Nader wrote in a letter to Congress last week. “In fact, simply looking at the numbers reveals that the Postal Service's ‘financial crisis’ is in fact an entirely manufactured crisis.” <Source>

2019 - U.S. Postal Service's Financial Viability - High Risk Issue

USPS financial viability continues to be high risk because USPS cannot fund its current level of services and financial obligations from its revenues. As stated in GAO’s 2019 High-Risk update, USPS faces financial challenges that include the following:

• Poor financial situation: USPS’s overall financial condition is deteriorating and unsustainable. USPS has lost $69 billion over the past 11 fiscal years—including $3.9 billion in fiscal year 2018. USPS’s total unfunded liabilities and debt ($143 billion at the end of fiscal year 2018) have grown to double its annual revenue.
• Insufficient cost savings: The savings from  USPS cost-reduction efforts have dwindled in recent years. Although USPS has stated that it will aggressively reduce costs within its control, its plans will not achieve the kind of savings necessary to significantly reduce current operating costs.
• Unfavorable trends: USPS’s expenses are now growing faster than its revenues—partly due to rising compensation and benefits costs and continuing declines in the volume of First-Class Mail.

Further, USPS has missed $48.2 billion in required payments for postal retiree health and pension benefits as of September 30, 2018.  This includes $42.6 billion in missed payments for retiree health benefits since fiscal year 2010, and $5.6 billion in missed payments for pension benefits since fiscal year 2014. If USPS does not make any more payments for retiree health benefits, the fund supporting these benefits is projected by the Office of Personnel Management to be depleted in fiscal year 2030. If the fund is depleted, USPS would be required by law to make the payments necessary to cover its share of health benefits premiums for postal retirees. However, current law does not address what would happen if USPS misses those payments. Depletion of the fund, together with USPS’s potential inability to make remaining contributions, could affect postal retirees as well as USPS, customers, and other stakeholders, including the federal government. <Source>

2020 - Selected First Quarter Fiscal 2020 Results of Operations and Controllable Loss

This news release references controllable loss, which is not calculated and presented in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (GAAP). Controllable loss is defined as net loss adjusted for items outside of management’s control and non-recurring items. These adjustments include workers’ compensation expenses caused by actuarial revaluation and discount rate changes, and the amortization of Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund (PSRHBF), Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) unfunded liabilities.

Footnotes…

¹  Expense for the accrual for the annual payment due to OPM by September 30 of the respective year, as calculated by OPM, to amortize the unfunded PSRHBF retirement health benefit obligation. Payments are to be made through 2056 based on OPM invoices.

²  Net amounts include changes in assumptions, valuation of new claims and revaluation of existing claims, less current year claim payments.

³  Expense for the accrual for the annual payment due to OPM by September 30 of the respective year, as calculated by OPM, to amortize the unfunded CSRS retirement obligation. Payments are to be made through 2043 based on OPM invoices.

⁴  Expense for the accrual for the annual payment due to OPM by September 30 of the respective year, as calculated by OPM, to amortize the unfunded FERS retirement obligation. Payments are to be made over a 30-year rolling period based on OPM invoices. <Source>

Bottom line…

It’s a simple game the politicians are playing. “Kick the can further and further down the road until we are out of office.” Then use a manufactured crisis that threatens Americans with the loss of mail service if they don’t pony up enough tax revenue to pay off the debts and satisfy the various government unions. Or, alternatively, use House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s approach, bury the bailout in existing “must-pass” emergency coronavirus legislation that is so large, that the additional money will not make a ripple. At this point, the emergency legislation is thought to be between $2 and $6 TRILLION dollars – what’s a few hundred billion between friends?

Why are they worrying? With 18 months to 12 years to save the planet from global warming, why bother with pension payments anyway since we are unlikely to survive this planetary catastrophe?

Enough is enough! We need to remove the progressive socialist democrats from office on the local, state, and federal levels as they are little more than a fifth column seeking to destroy America from within on behalf of her enemies, both foreign and domestic. One look at the House Seniority List or the Senate Seniority List will convince you that the current leadership of Congress knew what was happening at the time and did absolutely nothing.

Trump may have his faults, but he certainly has risen to the office – in spite of constant sabotage,  hostile media, and never-ending attacks. We need Trump. We do not need progressive socialist democrats.

We are so screwed.

-- steve