Bernie Sanders Touts Postal Banking on Jimmy Kimmel

Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) made a strong case for postal banking while appearing on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show on Oct. 21. [Watch an excerpt here, beginning at approximately 18:00.]

“We have millions and millions of low-income people who have to go to these payday lenders and pay outrageous interest rates,” he said. “They’re getting ripped off right and left.

“We can have our Postal Service provide modest banking to low-income people where they can cash their checks and they can do banking.  I think it will help the post office and it will help millions of low-income people.”

APWU President Mark Dimondstein followed up on Sanders’ point in an interview on the Ed Schultz Show the following morning [beginning at approximately 16:58]. “It’s another way that the Postal Service can fulfill its mission of weaving the people of the country as one,” he said.

Dimondstein noted that postal banking is “just an expansion of things we already do,” and pointed out that “over 30 percent of zip codes have no banks, but they have a post office. It’s a win-win-win.”

For more information, visit the Campaign for Postal Banking.