No, Amazon isn’t ripping off the Postal Service
Apr 4, 2018, 11:28 AM | Updated: 2:44 pm
Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Amazon has created issues for retail businesses across the country. What it hasn’t done is ripped off the United State Postal Service like President Trump claims.
RELATED: Trump goes after Amazon – again
What Trump is trying to do is stick it to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, CBS’s Major Garrett told Seattle’s Morning News.
On April 2, Trump tweeted, “Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon. THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country…not a level playing field!”
Trump isn’t correct that the Postal Service is part of the federal government, Garrett points out. It’s a quasi-federal agency with its own budget, own management, and own board. And Amazon isn’t causing it to lose money. The decline of regular mail is causing budgetary problems for the Postal Service, Amazon is providing a financial buffer by using it for deliveries.
The more significant issue the president touched on was the taxation of internet retailers. Lawmakers have struggled to come to a conclusion on whether internet retailers should pay the same as physical retailers.
But Trump seems to be targeting Amazon because of the coverage he gets from The Washington Post — owned by Bezos.
Listen to the entire conversation here.
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Tune in to KIRO Newsradio weekdays at 5am for Dave Ross on Seattle's Morning News.
