If you follow the news you may erroneously believe that there was a serious effort to provide additional funding for the United States Post Office.  That is because the news media goes along with the Democrats no matter how silly they act.

To maximize the dramatic POLITICAL impact, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the House into session in an emergency Saturday session.  She called the situation at the Post Office a crisis.  Money was needed IMMEDIATELY!!!  Without such funding, the Post Office’s ability to deliver mail would collapse.  The 2020 General Election would be stolen.  The American Republic would fall.  Maybe even the world would end.

Those claims are not hyperbolic.   They are bald-faced lies.

First and foremost, the Post Office has more than adequate federal money to breeze through the remainder of 2020 – including any increase in vote-by-mail.  Even if EVERY registered voter cast a ballot by mail, there should not be more of a problem than is normally the case.  That would only represent a six percent increase in volume – and we know that only a fraction of voters will use the mail.  Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified under oath, assuring Americans that the Post Office has a full capability of handling any number of mail-in ballots.

We must understand, however, that the Post Office loses approximately three percent of the mail routinely.  It is just part of human and mechanical imperfection.  Of course, losing three percent of the ballots can be a problem.  If 130,000,000 votes mailed in their ballots, that would mean 3.9 million lost ballots.  That is more than the winning popular vote in the 2016 election.  But again … not every voter will mail in their ballots.

You can count on fights over the timeliness of ballots.  Many will arrive beyond the deadline.  Republicans and Democrats will argue bitterly over whether they can be counted or not – depending, of course, who is likely to have cast those ballots.  We can avoid a lot of that problem by voting in person – early or on election day.  If you can go to the store or a restaurant, you can damn well take even a smaller risk to vote.

Thankfully, most voters will NOT vote by mail – and as I advised in the past, should not.  If at all possible, get you butt out to the polling locations – early or on Election Day.  And do not be fearmongered into thinking you cannot do so safely.

Not only is there not an earth ending crisis, but there is not even a serious problem.  Furthermore, Pelosi and every Democrat who voted for that meaningless piece of legislation knows that the bill would not even be considered by the Senate.  And even if it became law, it is unlikely that any funds would reach the Post Office in time to increase workers, machinery and training.

But just to be sure that somehow the bill might get signed into law – since the last thing Pelosi wanted was for the Senate to pass her politically motivated bill – she added what are known as “poison pill” provisions.  While the press dwells on the funding, they do not mention that the bill also requires the Post Office to replace unneeded machinery and postal drop boxes – among other things.

These are basically management decisions – not subject to the micromanagement by Congress.  Pelosi knows that no responsible senator would support this kind of legislative intrusion into day-to-day operations.

In other words, all the Democrats’ hyperkinetic legislative activity was utterly meaningless – and shame on the press for giving it a false air of legitimacy.   The entire vote by the House Democrats was a cheesy political stunt.

This does not mean that there will not be election day controversy over the vote in November – including the mail vote.  That is generally the case if the election is close – and that is what we seem to get these days.  And with the nation locked in an acrimonious political divide, the controversies can expect to be worse and more prolonged than normal.

But thank God for the Electoral College, which can generally settle the election even when the political adversaries and the courts cannot.

So, there ‘tis.

By Larry Horist