Advertisements

Sen. Bernie Sanders took to The Ed Show to explain why the GOP’s plan to destroy the Postal Service is all about killing 230,000 jobs in the name of privatization.

Here’s the video from MSNBC:

Advertisements

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Partial Transcript from MSNBC:

SCHULTZ: All the things brought up about e-mail and the way society changes, goods and services, I understand all that. Had the Republicans not have done this pre-funding of 75 years in a 10 year window they wouldn’t have near the financial problems they have right now, correct? SEN. SANDERS: Absolutely. Here’s the point, Ed. That fund now has $44 billion. What the Inspector General of the Post Office has told us the other day, if the Post Office does not put another nickel in the fund, it accumulates 4% interest in 21 years that fund is fully funded, stronger than any similar fund in the United States. We should use that 5.5 billion in order to stabilize the Post Office today. SCHULTZ: How are you going to get the private sector to help rural America? In the long run this is a real thorn in the side of American business, I think. SEN. SANDERS: You’re absolutely right, Ed. This is what we’re talking about. 230,000 jobs being lost in the postal service in the middle of recession. The postal service is responsible for millions of other jobs, in the private sector, businesses who use the mail, have to use the mail, packages every day. We’re talking about losing 3700 post offices, many of them rural. we’re talking about if these guys get their way of slowing down mail delivery, so that instead of one day delivery, it may be two or three, instead of three it may be five, if you do that in my view, and the view of many experts, you’re talking about a death spiral the end of the postal service as we know it.

Sen. Sanders has it nailed. This is nothing more than another Republican move that is based on ideology. There is no reason to kill the Postal Service, just like there was no economic reason to kill Medicare. Republicans support doing both because their ideology tells them that privatization is better. Make no mistake about it. This attempt to kill the Post Office begins and ends with privatization.

The problem with privatization is that it doesn’t provide a better quality of service, and it costs the taxpayers more money both in the short and long run.

If the Postal Service was privatized, mail delivery would no longer be uniform across the country. Private companies would focus their services in the areas where they could make the most profit. Privatization would be a death sentence for that American institution known as the small town Post Office. Most importantly, Republicans can’t be allowed to kill off 230,000 jobs just as this economy is really beginning to grow.

Every Democrat in America should be talking about this issue right now, and hopefully Senators like Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown will lead the way.