Radio Recap – Pelosi’s Mail-in Political Plot

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the Left in Congress FAILED to take action before the recess for the American worker during COVID-19, but now they’re trying to save the U.S. Postal Service because of mail-in ballots. What about the American worker?

Today on Jay Sekulow Live we discussed Speaker Pelosi and the Left, who went home instead of working to protect American workers, now running back to vote on legislation to save the U.S. Postal Service before November’s election.

As we recently discussed, President Trump took four Executive actions to try to help American workers and American businesses. But Speaker Pelosi sent Congress home at a time when they could have helped. Democrats love Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) loans. They love stimulus checks. But because it’s getting close to the election, and the Democrat National Convention is about the begin, during a pandemic when government bailouts actually make sense, Democrats ran home.

But now they’re heading back because oh no, the Postal Service is saying we may have trouble if you go all mail ballots. The Post Office can barely keep up with the mail as it is. Speaker Pelosi is rushing the House back to save the Post Office.

My dad, ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow, called out the hypocrisy so perfectly:

The politics of this are so obvious that you could run a Mack truck through it. By the way this Postal Service situation all ties in to the mail-in ballot and the potential for abuse. Now I’m in favor of mail-in ballots with safeguards and protections so that it’s constitutionally protected, but also that the safeguards are in place. But the irony of all of this to me anyways is that [Speaker Pelosi] sends them home, everything’s fine until September 7th, and then what happens? Oh, we have a political moment here. We can say that the Post Office is now broken, it’s the President’s fault, and the mail-in ballots will never be counted. So this is the idea of already setting up a scenario where there will be legal irregularities; and they will then decide, oh, we’ve got to fix it now, so that’s why she’s calling them back. And by the way, it’s been broken for about 30 years.

As I pointed out on the show, a governmental Postal Service review called overall financial condition of the USPS “deteriorating and unstable.” It has lost $69 billion over the past 11 years. Why didn’t Congress feel the need to take action then, rather than 3 months before an election?

I asked our Director of Governmental Affairs Thann Bennett if there is a possibility that our team could work with Congress and the White House, and say if they want support for the Post Office, let’s put a deal together that says for this to move forward, then you must include PPP and stimulus checks for American workers.

Thann answered:

Of course, Jordan, and I think you’ve heard this from all the negotiators. You’ve definitely heard it directly from President Trump. Leader McConnell has said that his preference is to have some dollars for the Postal Service in there. Now long term, obviously there needs to be some reforms; and those aren’t going to happen before the November election. But this goes to something that your dad said . . . . There are states that do mail-in programs pretty well, and virtually every state does absentee ballots pretty well. So I think that both President Trump and Leader McConnell would have the expectation that there probably will be dollars for the Postal Service in a deal.

What they’re not going to do is let the opportunity for a deal go by without meeting the most pressing demands which is making sure that the American people who are suffering also get some compensation. But to specifically answer your question, I think the only possibility for a deal would be if PPP and direct checks and some dollars for the Postal Service – with the promise for reform down the road – all of those pieces have to be in it, otherwise it’s not going to clear all of the chambers that it takes and get the President’s signature to become law.

Look, I’m fine with money going to the postal service to get ready for this unprecedented time. I know just by speaking to my own postman that it’s been a tough time. They are frontline workers. And there are a number of our own listeners who have no choice but to vote by mail because of a pre-existing condition, or have to use an absentee ballot.

I tasked Thann and our Governmental Affairs team on the air to take action and tell Congress that even though we don’t like that they ran away without helping the American worker, we’re willing to give them a second shot and support a deal for the Postal Service, but it has to include PPP loans and get stimulus checks out to help struggling Americans.

The full broadcast includes much more discussion about Speaker Pelosi’s plan and what we expect to see in order for it to move forward.

Watch the full broadcast below.