Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman is attacking President Donald Trump’s machinations to boost oil and gas prices amid the job-destroying coronavirus pandemic while reportedly refusing to help the struggling U.S. Postal Service.
Oil-producing nations reached a historic deal Sunday, prodded by Trump, to slash output by 9.7 million gallons a day in a bid to shore up plummeting prices amid the pandemic.
As Trump was reaching out to oil producers, the Postal Service pleaded to Congress for funds as it teeters on the brink of collapse. Yet Trump has threatened to veto the recent $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package if it includes USPS aid, The Washington Post reported.
Krugman wondered on Twitter why Trump is “so desperate to raise oil prices, even though America is a net oil importer,” which would mean an increase in prices for U.S. consumers.
“One answer,” he noted, is that oil and gas companies gave 88% of their campaign contributions to Republicans in 2016. Another consideration for Trump is that his “favorite autocrats” in top oil producers Saudi Arabia and Russia will benefit.
On the other hand, Trump is convinced that the Postal Service is somehow subsidizing deliveries from arch-nemesis Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, Krugman pointed out. (One Trump critic responding to Krugman on Twitter quipped that oil and gas operations also won’t be delivering mail-in ballots for the November election.)
Postal Service workers are also protected by a union, while most oil and gas operations are not unionized, Krugman noted.
The economist wondered if Trump has carefully thought through his strategy and its potential effect on his reelection campaign. The post office is “overwhelmingly popular; if it collapses on his watch, it would hurt him,” Krugman noted.
The collapse of the Postal Service would also deliver another crushing blow to the economy.
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich also on Monday slammed the billions of dollars of public money earmarked to bail out private companies in the pandemic while the president showed no concern about the Postal Service.
Check out Krugman’s Twitter thread on the issue here:
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