The U.S. Postal Service on Thursday said it needs to shave more costs from its operations to get into better financial shape. To do that, the postal agency wants to overhaul its delivery logistics, resulting in some customers likely seeing a slowdown in their mail delivery.
The 👏 USPS 👏 is 👏 a 👏 government 👏 service and does not need to be “profitable”. You don’t hear people complaining that the military “loses” $700B a year.*
I know DeJoy can’t just be fired, but I really wish there were some progress toward ousting him.
* Aside from the valid complaints about military spending in general. Also the $700B figure is likely out of date.
A great deal of the financial pressure that the USPS has been under resulted from the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act [which] required the Postal Service to create a $72 billion fund that would pay for its employees’ retirement health benefits for more than 50 years into the future
The system is absurd and intentionally so. The goal of this system is to starve the USPS of spendable cash in a quixotic effort to save money for employees who haven’t been born yet.
I know DeJoy can’t just be fired
Biden has the power to fire and replace the entire USPS Board of Governors. The replacements then have the power to replace DeJoy.
But in much the same way Biden refuses to pack the SCOTUS (a nine seat bench that presides over thirteen appellate courts and should have been expanded decades ago), he’s dragging his heels on a Board of Governors long ago stacked with Republican nominees. This is because Biden fucking voted for this policy. One of the worst bills in US History was passed through the Senate with unanimous consent.
Decorum strikes again!
(Am I ever tired of the government being run by people who do what they do because that’s the way they’ve always done it. No more greatests/silents/boomers who have been in government for 20, 30, 40, 50 years please.)
2023 defense budget was closer to $860 billion
Lol, yeah. $700B was just the last figure I recalled clearly but was pretty sure it had increased.
The key difference is the USPS is self-funded, so it does need to cover costs and maintain a reserve to cover downturns, which it could do by expanding into basic banking services, like check cashing, if DeJoy was not tasked with grinding the service down.
Tasked? DeJoy owns a freight company, breaking and outsourcing USPS is in his financial interest
so it does need to cover costs
What about that determination isn’t 100% arbitrary?
Biden did get some new appointees on the board: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/people/2022/05/usps-board-is-now-mostly-biden-picks-following-latest-senate-confirmations/ but i’m not sure what the hold up is now.
edit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/07/25/president-biden-announces-nominees-4/ more recent additional nominees.
As a cancer patient, I have to say: This is fucked.
I’m not an old person yet, but I already have one old person issue: I have a specialized drug that I need to stay alive, that is also only available via mailorder.
Tons of elderly have a fuckton of medications just like that. All of them only available from specialized pharmacies that only are available by mail order.
This will kill people waiting to get life saving medications. That is all.
And also because of the ridiculousness of controlled substances, you can’t just order ahead for, say, 2 months of buffer that could negate the risk of delays.
Because people can’t be trusted with too much medicine. Like everyone’s going to OD on cancer drugs or something if they don’t ration it out to the day.
I have this problem. My doctor tried to get me 2 months of my medication and the pharmacist said, “yOuR iNsUrAnCe DoEsN’t clCoVeR tHaT.” Ain’t painkillers or anything, literally my drug to keep me alive. If I wanted to OD theres a lot of easier drugs you could get without a pharmacist.
I have 3.5 cats on the same medication (0.5 cat is shared custody we watch sometimes). Juggling 4 prescriptions is a pain in the ass. Life would be much simpler if we could just get a Costco sized bottle of it and be good for half a year or more. For a medication that is very commonly prescribed for elderly cats.
I’d never want to have life-saving meds sent through the USPS.
You can get specialized services for shipping pharmaceuticals to your pharmacy, like what FedEx offers..
The pharmacy in question is CVS Specialty, and they already offer shipping direct to a local pharmacy.
That doesn’t really change the calculus that if it is sent via USPS, and USPS has slowdowns, that it may take dangerously too long to arrive.
They don’t really let you choose what partner they’re going to ship with, so it’s a “you get what you get” situation and I can’t ask for FedEx specifically if I wanted it. They ship with whatever’s cheapest to them at a given time.
Resorting to a private service because USPS is prevented from doing its job is exactly what the saboteurs want.
It’s election time. Better slow the mail down to stop THOSE people from defrauding our democracy! /s
I like the joke, but that was the first thing I looked for in the article. At least they’re not doing that this time
USPS does not need to make a profit, this is just bonkers. I live in a rural area and don’t even get mail delivery, and for a time we didn’t even have a local post office. Here’s hoping that doesn’t happen again.
They shouldn’t be required to profit, or break even, but they pretty much are.
We’re self-funding. The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
OTOH, not seeing how that prevents government funding:
The statute that created the Postal Service begins with the following sentence: “The United States Postal Service shall be operated as a basic and fundamental service provided to the people by the Government of the United States, authorized by the Constitution, created by an Act of Congress, and supported by the people.” 39 U.S.C. §101(a).
If DeJoy could just get fired, and Congress could undo the asinine retirement fund the postal service is forced to fund that pays for retirement of people the post office will hire in the future. This wouldn’t be happening. They could expand service. That’s right! Georgie bush Jr and the republicans forced the USPS to pay retirement so far ahead it covers people not old enough to work there yet. Prior to that the post office had money left over and they had a good retirement plan. Plus FedEx an ups said they ain’t gonna fill in for the post office, they are not capable with their infrastructure for the prices charged. Postal service is required and a good service when it’s being run properly, and not being forced to look incompetent by two faced politicians claiming to be business savy.
