Elizabeth Warren's Postal Banking Idea Has Big Public Support, New Poll Finds

[NorthCarolina]

Many Americans say they would support the U.S. Postal Service expanding into basic banking and financial services and would sometimes use those services if they were available, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll.

Expanding post office services to include banking was recently explored in a report by the Postal Service inspector general, and is backed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D.-Mass.) as a way to bring affordable basic banking services to low-income neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods are often ignored by banks and served only by check cashers and payday lenders that charge high fees.

According to the new poll, 44 percent of Americans said they would favor the Postal Service offering basic financial services like bill-paying, check-cashing and small loans. Thirty-seven percent said they were opposed, and 19 percent said they weren't sure.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/13/post-office-banking-_n_4776767.html

How about it DU'ers...do you support this idea?

[unblock]

1. absolutely!

[Scuba]

2. Do I support it? Oh hell yes!

[Stargazer09]

3. Definitely!

This is a brilliant idea.

[HappyMe]

4. This sounds like a pretty damn good idea.

Those check cashing places charge a lot of money.

[NorthCarolina]

5. Not to mention

that it would be a huge financial boon to a postal service that is operating under a forced edict to fund pensions 75 years out. Darrell Issa will undoubtedly mount a challenge against this idea.

Congressman Darrell Issa really is determined to end the United States Postal Service as Americans know it—indeed, as Americans have known it for more than 200 years.

Issa, the powerful chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has a long history of attacking the postal service. But, now, he has taken advantage of a manufactured crisis to get his committee to vote twenty-two to seventeen in favor of a “Postal Reform Act of 2013” that American Postal Workers Union president Cliff Guffey warns “will lead to the demise of the Postal Service.”

http://www.thenation.com/blog/175439/darrell-issas-got-plan-put-postal-service-death-spiral

[HappyMe]

7. Damn.

I really can't stand Issa. Anything that would help the post office or poor people he will crap on.

[gerogie2]

6. No, I don't support this idea.

The Post Office is on it's last legs and needs to be phased out.

[HappyMe]

8. Why?

I use them to mail out things to my sons. I still get my utility and cable bills mailed to the house.

[gerogie2]

9. I didn't say close it today. It is time to phase it out

We can set up low cost Internet service just like We set up low cost phone service.

[HappyMe]

10. I can't mail packages to my sons through the internet.

I don't do any banking online either. Sorry, this Luddite isn't interested in having my bills and banking info 'out there'.

If you can barely feed yourself, I doubt you have a few hundred bucks for a computer.

[gerogie2]

11. You would send a package

through a private company like UPS, FEDEX etc etc etc.

[marlakay]

14. I guess your not aware ups & FedEx

In smaller areas they can't afford to go to use the regular USPS.

It would be a mess for rural areas all over u.s. If we didn't have regular post office.

[HappyMe]

21. I can walk to the post office.

There isn't a UPS or FedEx place around here.

[magical thyme]

25. USPS package services cost less than UPS, Fedex

and they have fewer distribution centers so pickup is hard for many.

Not everybody uses the internet, and not everybody wants to be forced to depend on the internet.

And maybe you didn't notice the big PRIVATE FAIL last Christmas?

USPS is in trouble *only* because of draconian demands forced on it that no private or other public institution is forced to meet.

[Beacool]

12. That sounds like a great idea.

It could turn into a win-win situation. It would save the postal service and provide needed services to the community.

[calimary]

13. Yes. I support this idea.

I support whatever ways can be found to ensure the continuation of the Postal Service.

It's jobs.

It's a place to get voting forms, and other forms.

It's cheaper all-purpose mailing. Try FedEx'ing or UPS'ing all the time and see what that saves you. And yes, I've had packages lost and wrongly-delivered using those services also, so it's not just a Postal Service syndrome.

I love this idea! And maybe I love it JUST BECAUSE so many CONservatives and republi-CONS hate it!

[myrna minx]

15. I love this idea. My letter carrier was talking about this last summer.

I support Senator Warren on this 100%.

[Whisp]

16. Yes, and I support this idea too:

Warren in this room in January of 2017

[UCmeNdc]

17. A great idea!

Needs action!

[whistler162]

18. Alot of Republicans in this thread......

Taft and Teddie Republicans that is.

&feature=kp

[Enthusiast]

19. I support this.

[question everything]

20. If this idea is in "we the people" I will sign on it (nt)

[TheKentuckian]

22. I'm down

[Sunlei]

23. free checking with a real savings account that pays more interest earning than banks zero or .o1

Have ATM type portals inside the post office.

[idendoit]

24. WooHoo! First my face on stamps. Now payday loans from the fed.

If you default, do they hunt you down and make you join the military?

[PoliticAverse]

26. 44% constitutes 'big public support'? n/t

[madrchsod]

27. the japanese have been using this system since the late 1800`s

the japan postal bank is one of the largest in the world.

[TheDebbieDee]

28. Most countries in Europe have been using a national postal system to do their

Banking for several decades. In Germany, they use the Bundes Poste for almost all of their business transactions from paying the rent/mortgage to buying bus/train passes.

[prairierose]

29. Yes, I do support this idea and it would help....

poorer people who do not have access to banking services. This could end their dependence on the evil payday loan industry which should be once again outlawed.

[polynomial]

30. More than two thousand years ago

one of the so called founders of modern western philosophy, Socrates was condemned by the Republic government he lived in.

Sounds sort of like times today have not changed as we condemn those Republicans that are not gadfly’s but true believers that pirate the treasury, rather than build the infrastructure, they sense away to sneak a profit. Now a billion to a trillion at a clip. They have all day to dance, That’s why it’s so hard to get them to take the hemlock.

The eye of providence is a very powerful compelling attraction for the politician today. It appears since that eye helps dictates what radiates from rhetoric we hear. Now that said since free speech is money we the people should tax the ears. Oh we already do that with the incredible noise called hate radio.

To jester about politics in this political pamph-lateer is some fun especially many here have that ability to see through the prism of Republican fraud.

Actually the post office is not only a banking solution but also a national security, political, educational solution. No more Bullwinkle about snooping in the mail. A warrant is needed to open this stuff.

Plus national terror alerts can be posted in a timely way for safety and prevention. I always said Metadata should be able to be accessed by everyone. The electromagnetic domain needs huge revisions to favor we the people.