Page 25 - bon-dia-aruba-20200626

A25
U.S. NEWS Friday 26 June 2020
Continued from Front dates the United States. It
The president has also was created by the Sec-
called the Postal Service ond Continental Congress
"a joke" and says package in July 1775, and Benjamin
shipping rates should be at Franklin was the first post-
least four times higher for master general.
heavy users such as Ama- Unlike its private competi-
zon. But shipping packages tors, the Postal Service can-
is a main revenue genera- not refuse to make costly
tor, and critics say Trump deliveries to especially
is merely looking to punish hard-to-reach addresses.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos Still, much of its budgetary
in retaliation for unflattering concerns stem from a 2006
coverage in The Washing- law requiring the agency
ton Post, which the billion- to fully fund retiree health
aire owns. benefits for the next 75
Trump has acknowledged years.
larger political calculations It normally operates without
are at work, tweeting that taxpayer funds. During the
expanding vote by mail will pandemic, however, it lost
"LEAD TO THE END OF OUR $4.5 billion in the 2020 bud-
GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY." get year's second quarter.
His Democratic rival, Joe Congress approved a $10
Biden, has suggested that billion line of credit for the Paul Falcon unloads a custom made "Priority Mail" box that organizers said contained two million
Trump's opposition to ab- agency as part of an eco- signed petitions from postal customers asking Congress to approve emergency funding for the
sentee voting and criticism nomic rescue package in Postal Service, Tuesday, June 23, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.
of the Postal Service may March. Since then, though, Associated Press
help the incumbent "steal" the Postal Service and the
the election. Treasury Department have meted — as much as 30%, ies of State from July 2018 Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and
Mark Dimondstein, presi- had discussions about re- according to the American to July 2019, fears keep- Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.,
dent of the American Post- quirements to extend those Postal Workers Union. ing such a promise could are among those propos-
al Workers Union, which loans. In April, then-Postmaster force the Postal Service to ing boosting Postal Service
represents 200,000-plus em- Neither side will say pub- General Megan Brennan cut back on routine servic- profits by having it expand
ployees, said the adminis- licly what's being negoti- said the agency could be es, which may see voting into banking services,
tration is "shamefully trying ated, but Trump has made out of money by Sept. 30. materials prioritized over which it provided for de-
to use the crisis to carry out his feelings clear. A 2018 Louis DeJoy, a North Caro- regular mail. The pressure is cades until the 1960s.
an agenda" of privatiza- Treasury task force also lina businessman and GOP also on because absentee Rural Republicans such as
tion, which would ultimate- recommended the Postal fundraiser who's donated ballots for overseas military Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska,
ly "break up the Postal Ser- Service increase package to Trump, recently suc- members are sent 45 days have also called for de-
vice and sell it." rates and cut labor costs. ceeded Brennan. before Election Day — or fending the agency. Still,
Vermont Secretary of State A second coronavirus aid Postal Service spokesper- Sept. 18, which is less than some conservatives say ty-
Jim Condos, a Democrat, package passed in May by son David Partenheimer three months away. ing its funding to Election
said "our democracy de- the Democratic-controlled said more recent trends "in- "This whole idea that we Day jitters is a partisan ploy.
pends on a reliable post of- House includes $25 billion in dicate that our 2020 finan- have until November to de- "It's just casting seeds of
fice." direct aid for the Postal Ser- cial performance will be cide, we really don't," Con- doubt on the legitimacy
"Midelection year is not the vice, but the GOP-majority better than our early sce- dos said. of the outcome," said Re-
time to see changes in the Senate hasn't approved its narios predicted," though The Postal Service consis- publican Tom Ridge, a for-
dependability of the Postal own version. he said much remains un- tently ranks as the nation's mer Pennsylvania gover-
Service, especially during More than 3,420 of the certain. "Our current finan- favorite federal agency. nor who heads VoteSafe,
a year when our country is Postal Service's 630,00-plus cial condition is not going to Pew Research Center poll- a bipartisan group work-
experiencing a pandemic employees have tested impact our ability to deliver ing in March found that ing with state and local
and health crisis, which will positive for COVID-19, and election and political mail 91% of Americans said they officials to expand and
dramatically increase the some have died. While this year," Partenheimer had a favorable view of it. strengthen vote-by-mail
necessity of voting by mail," package deliveries have in- said. But Condos, who was Congressional Democrats options. "It's very sad, it's
he said. creased as Americans stay president of the National are clamoring to "save very disappointing, it's very
The Postal Service pre- home, mail volumes plum- Association of Secretar- the post office," and Sens. troubling."q
Trump tweets about plan for BLM mural in front of his Tower

NEW YORK (AP) — President Like Bacon", referring to "The president is a disgrace
Donald Trump has taken killing Police, is their chant. to the values we cherish in
issue with New York City NYC Police are furious!" his New York City," de Blasio
Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to tweet said. But that has not spokesperson Julia Arre-
paint "Black Lives Matter" in in fact been a common dondo said. "He can't run or
giant letters on the street in chant at protests in New deny the reality we are fac-
front of Trump's namesake York or elsewhere since the ing, and any time he wants
Manhattan tower. death of George Floyd one to set foot in the place he
Trump tweeted Thursday month ago in Minneapolis. claims is his hometown, he
that de Blasio "wants to City Hall officials an- should be reminded Black
paint the fabled & beau- nounced Wednesday that Lives Matter."
In this June 6, 2020 photo provided by the Executive Office of tiful Fifth Avenue, right in the "Black lives matter," ral- De Blasio announced ear-
the Mayor of Washington, DC, the Washington Monument and front of Trump Tower/Tiffa- lying cry would be painted lier this month that the city
the White House are visible behind the words Black Lives Matter ny, with a big yellow Black in bold letters on the street would paint "Black Lives
painted in bright yellow letters on the 16th Street, in Washington. Lives Matter sign." in front of the president's Matter" on streets at loca-
Associated Press
""Pigs in a Blanket, Fry 'Em midtown skyscraper. tions around the city. q