9mo ago

USPS says it wants to save $3 billion a year. Some rural mail delivery could get slower.

www.cbsnews.com

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.

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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 Also the $700B figure is likely out of date.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.)
  
  "Decorum," or just Democrats not actually being the allies to normal people that people want them to be.
  (To be clear: that's still way better than the Republicans' outright mustache-twirling villainy.)
- 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.
  
  It always increases, sigh...
- 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
  
  Ugh does he really?
  
  He didn’t appoint himself to the job.
  
  No he was just appointed by a fascist to dismantle the USPS to try and block mail in votes
  
  so it does need to cover costs
  What about that determination isn't 100% arbitrary?
  
  Do you think postal carriers work for free? Salaries, vehicle maintenance, keeping the lights on, etc, these are all real expenses.
- 700 billion is just the figure that we get to know about
  Maybe if they would take that 700 billion and invest it in an interest-bearing way, They would be able to pay for them selves.
- 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.
  
  The hold up is that the new appointees Biden picked also support DeJoy, because Biden doesn't actually oppose DeJoy's destruction of USPS.

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