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JHB

(37,128 posts)
7. Destroying USPS has been a Koch/Libertarian project since the '70s
Sun Aug 16, 2020, 12:53 PM
Aug 2020
https://truenorthresearch.org/2020/06/charles-koch-targets-the-postal-service-bankrupt-privatization/
Wait a Minute, Mr. Koch-Man: The Plot to Kill the Public’s Postal Service
Lisa Graves June 18, 2020

The Postal Service is the most popular institution in America. So why are some of the people who represent us in Washington, DC, willing to kill the most trusted brand and most popular institution in America?

One man, Charles Koch, has played a singular role.

He has used his vast fortune to fertilize theories that were once at the far fringes of society–like abolishing the Postal Service. And he has amplified his anti-government agenda through special interest groups he has grown.

The truth is that Koch, one of the richest men in America and the world, has been helping to fund and fuel efforts to kill the Postal Service and other public institutions dating back to the 1970s, though few Americans know it. Here is a quick timeline on this:

1970s Charles Koch stakes Robert Poole and Reason magazine and the Reason Foundation as they promote attacks on the Postal Service that endorse a for-profit postal system and “privatization” generally.
1976 Koch stakes the Libertarian Party, which urges the public institutions and programs be eliminated including “the abolition of the governmental Postal Service.”
1977 Koch stakes Ed Crane and co-founds the Cato Institute, which urges that government functions be handled by the “free market.”
1980 David Koch runs of Vice President on a privatization platform, including for the Postal Service. Poole publishes a book subsidized by the Reason Foundation, whose angel investor is Charles Koch, which urges the privatization of local government functions and more.
1980 Charles Koch stakes Richard Fink at George Mason, and Fink urges Ronald Reagan’s “Grace Commission” to privatize government functions; the Commission’s recommendations including outsourcing thousands of Postal Service jobs and Post Offices.
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2020 Americans for Prosperity expressly denounces any funding for the Postal Service, despite the Postal Service performing “essential” work in the pandemic and with the growing need for vote by mail. Americans for Prosperity also begins running digital ads targeting several U.S. Senators to toe the Koch line against the Postal Service. Miller remains on the small board of Koch’s Americans for Prosperity, the longest serving leader of this arm of Koch’s political operation other than David Koch. The total amount Americans for Prosperity is spending on this campaign against the Postal Service is unknown.

More at the link, plus:

Interviews with the researcher:
CounterSpin, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting: https://fair.org/home/a-combination-of-forces-puts-our-postal-service-at-grave-risk/

8 O'Clock Buzz, WORT radio, Madison, WI: https://www.wortfm.org/wait-a-minute-mr-koch-man-the-plot-to-kill-the-publics-postal-service/



18-page briefing by the researcher (PDF available at):
https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/the-billionaire-behind-efforts-to-kill-the-usps/
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