The U.S. Postal Service said the proposed changes would go into effect in 2025. One critic calls it a "recipe for a death spiral."
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 Also the $700B figure is likely out of date.
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.
(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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
Because Biden wants him to be. Biden has made enough appointments to the USPS Board of Governors that they would have a majority to remove DeJoy if they wanted, but Biden appointed DeJoy supporters instead.
Edit: if you downvoters think I'm wrong, reply with an alternative explanation.
I actually agree with you. Though I don’t know why Biden has left him in place. DeJoy sucks, and I hope the next Democratic president pushes to remove him.