According to the Postal Service website, the Postal Service finished 2018 with $13.2 billion in outstanding debt.
(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) unveiled legislation Thursday aimed at fighting predatory lending practices of banks and to protect consumers from “exorbitant” credit card interest rates.
They also propose giving the U.S. postal service the ability to conduct basic banking services, allowing people to cash paychecks, transfer money electronically, and pay bills.
“An additional crisis, but part of this whole situation is that many poor people don’t have access to banking services, because the big banks are not worried about somebody who makes $10 an hour. They can’t make enough money for that, so we have got to move toward universal banking through the postal system,” Sanders said in a livestreamed video on Facebook and Twitter.
“You have post offices in almost every community in America. They should be available to provide basic banking services so that people do not have to go into payday lenders,” Sanders said, adding, “If you think Wall Street is disgusting, think about payday lenders charging people 100 -150 percent interest rates.”
“Post offices exist in almost every community in our country. There are more than 31,000 retail post offices in this country. An important way to provide decent banking opportunities for low-income communities is to allow the U.S. Postal Service to engage in basic banking services,” Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez explained in a press release on Sanders’ website.
“The Postal Service already cashes Treasury checks and issues money orders. The USPS should fully exercise its existing statutory authority and implement pilot programs offering affordable financial services, including ATMs, paycheck cashing, bill payment and electronic money transfers in post offices,” they added.
Ocasio-Cortez said it’s “expensive to be poor.”
“If you’re poor, your interest rates are much higher. You live in a food desert, so your average head of lettuce or your average bit of spinach is much more expensive than it is in other communities,” she said.
The congresswoman shared what banking was like for her while she was waitressing in New York City. more here
Yeah, the same guys who lost over 2 billion last quarter.
I can only imagine how many post offices would suddenly be armed robby zones.
AOC spent a childhood of hearing her parents say, “The check is in the mail,” and now this is what we get.
Imagine waiting on that line?
Imagine THAT customer service when they create a problem?
Let cortez use exclusively government services outside of congressional perks, and see how long the dunce survives. And she is a dunce.
Sure. Why not?
Government taking over student loans worked out so well, why not be the largest payday lender too?
Banking……oh……I would have thought they would have wanted to partner with a methadone clinic.
Possibly a tire store….
Just seems like a better fit.
….and Fitty Fi cents a stamp ain’t enough robbery…..
A postal worker once told me that this debt problem would be a non issue if the government was not funding their pensions 70 years into the future.
I had to go to the post office to retrieve a registered, receipt required letter. It looked like a third world country.
Because the USPS is soooo good at what they do now!
Little does AOC know she herself is an “average head of lettuce”.
Since poor people of color are too stupid to get a photo ID, is the Post Office going to have to guess who is demanding their check cashed?
Didn’t the House already get in trouble 30 years ago, for postal franking /cashing out of stamps? 😳 And now they want EVERYONE in on the skim / scam?! 🙄
Remember when the post office wanted to issue an email address to everyone? I think it was Marvin Travis Runyon who made the statement: “We own all the addresses in america” but I couldn’t find a record of it on the net. Pretty sure this was in ’94-’95 time frame.
US postal service has been fooking up since at least 1918 with the upside down Jenny stamp.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_Jenny
And then they became unionized.
between these two big government nitwits you need a fork and a steak knife to cut through the stupidity,
These are not class valedictorians. I am surprised they can breathe on their own. I Wish they couldn’t. Do they have post its on their shoes labeled LEFT and RIGHT?
Once they saw RIGHT they would be walking around with one shoe on.
Wading into the deep waters of their minds wouldn’t get your ankles wet.
The basic fundamental question in all of this is why would any business spread risk around to all corners of its business when it can and should be contained to a portion of their business?
Their plan is asking everyone to share added risk.
If I were running a bank, I’d tell high risk people to screw off. Otherwise every single one of my customers will tell my bank to screw off.
“Sorry we can not offer you our services, but once you improve your credit you are welcome to re apply.”
It’s okay to have standards.
And what’s their plan going to accomplish exactly? At the end of the day a person that can not manage money will still be unable to manage money regardless of what fees are charged. Just like every college graduate that’s in debt will still be stuck with a worthless college degree when not in debt.
“You live in a food desert, so your average head of lettuce or your average bit of spinach is much more expensive than it is in other communities,” she said.
When I lived in Harrisburg, PA… another third world shit hole… the ‘food desert’ was right up the hill. Most shelves were half empty most of the time due to theft. Thus, the higher prices. The manager told us that.
Occasionally, we had to visit the ‘desert’, and we always carried. You never knew what you might have to do just to get out of the place.
They might as well be a bank and even print money just like stamps. Then they can lose it like they lose your mail. Then, when the SHTF, they can convert their offices to soup kitchens and when rationing hits, you only get half a bowl – and it has an eyeball in it, probably human.
Being charged $25 per month is a lot less than 6% of the earnings at least twice a month. Whoever banks with a group that charges them $25 is looking at a significant savings off, say, a weekly $250 paycheck that would cost $15 to cash each time. That’s $60 every month. Banks also provide services such as debt and credit counseling and you can establish a relationship with them after time that you never could with a loan lender. On top of that, you can get a box of checks for a very cheap price (order from the Sunday paper ad instead of the bank) and ta-da – instantly eliminate the need to buy money orders and risk carrying large amounts of cash anywhere. Same with then having access to a bank card with which you can buy groceries, etc. and not have to pay cash.
Having said that, there are also other options, such as credit unions, which are client owned and provide free banking with direct deposit, which is a cinch to get these days.
This is just a sampling of why this broad is full of sh**. Not everything is as expensive as she says if people get off their arses and actually shop around, do the comparisons and make the effort to improve their lot.
And on top of that, the banks and credit unions aren’t going to hide your money in large sacks under their front porches.
The most obnoxious assholes in the world work in the post office.
Now, give them more ways to aggrevate you
Watch them careully if you want to see how an
financially disasterous, commiEnomics “Stupid Bomb”
is made.