Yves here. We’re giving the latest USPS horrorshow, that of Postmaster General DeJoy actively trying to push the Postal Service into a death spiral by raising prices and degrading service, extra attention in the hope that citizens will call or e-mail their Congresscritter to demand their old Postal Service back.
USPS has a fake problem, its supposedly unfixable economics, which in fact result completely from punitively bogus accounting. As the Los Angeles Times’ Mike Hiltzik wrote last year:
DeJoy didn’t mention at all the single most important driver of the Postal Service’s annual deficit: the onerous requirement, enacted in 2006, that the service pre-fund its retiree healthcare costs, a mandate not imposed on any other government agency or private corporation.
According to the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington think tank, the mandate costs the USPS more than $4 billion a year. Without this burden, the institute says, “the Post Office would have reported operating profits in each of the last six years.” Instead, “This extraordinary mandate created a financial ‘crisis’ that has been used to justify harmful service cuts and even calls for postal privatization.”
The USPS has also been afflicted by a drop in first class mail and significant growth in package deliveries, which literally place bigger loads on infrastructure. But rather than manage this demand, it’s instead another element in the trumped-up case for privatization.
Even though this article focuses on prominent calls for DeJoy’s ouster, a recent article in Slate contends theres’s no easy path to removing him:
If DeJoy served at the pleasure of the president, Biden surely would’ve fired him on Day One. But he doesn’t. The problem, ironically, originates from Congress’ desire to insulate USPS from politics. For most of American history, the Postal Service played an integral rolein the spoils system, and postmaster general was a plum post for an ally of the president. In 1970, Congress overhauled the structureof the Postal Service to end this sordid tradition of patronage by giving the agency substantial independence. To oversee USPS’s activities, Congress established a nine-member board of governors who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. No more than five members of the board may belong to the same political party. Once confirmed to the board, governors can only be removed by the president “for cause”; that means their jobs are safe unless the president can show that they engaged in malfeasance or extreme neglect of duty. The board of governors, in turn, selects the postmaster general, who is not subject to Senate approval. And once appointed, the postmaster general can only be removed by the board, though it need not justify its decision.
This structure, in short, is why Louis DeJoy remains postmaster general under Biden. The board of governors is dominated by Trump appointees; Senate Republicans refused to confirm President Barack Obama’s nominees to the board, leaving vacancies that Trump promptly filled. Today, there are four Republicans and two Democrats on the board, plus three vacancies. One Democrat, Ron Bloom, is serving a holdover term, which means Biden can replace him at any time. Thus, Biden can fill four seats on the board of governors—a move that would flip the board, giving Democrats a 5–4 majority. The new president can then urge the Democratic members to remove DeJoy, which they can do by a majority vote.
Filling these vacancies is the simplest way for Biden to get rid of DeJoy, though there is no guarantee that it will actually work. The new board would include five Democrats—but one of them, Donald Lee Moak, is a Trump-appointed moderate who, along with the rest of the board, backed DeJoywhen he came under fire for his alleged corruption.* It appears unlikely that Moak would choose to oust a postmaster general whom he supported through this summer’s controversy. And if Moak declined to join Biden’s nominees in firing DeJoy, the postmaster general would retain his position indefinitely.
If the Democrats had a spine, an alternative would be to prosecute DeJoy for corruption if there’s enough smoke to get a grand jury to indict. Rooting around in someone’s file cabinets with discovery powers can unearth all sorts of dirt. But as we can see from how quickly the Democrats folded in the latest impeachment, all they stand for is political theater.
By Jake Johnson, staff writer at Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams
Undeterred by the backlash and widespread delays that followed his disruptive operational changes at the U.S. Postal Service last year, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is reportedly planning to roll out another slate of policies that would significantly hike postage rates and further slow the delivery of certain kinds of mail.
While the plan has yet to be finalized, new details of the proposal—first reportedby the Washington Post—intensified pressure on President Joe Biden to take decisive action before DeJoy inflicts any more damage on the most popular government institution in the country.
“Fire DeJoy before he burns down the USPS,” Zephyr Teachout, associate professor of law at Fordham University, tweeted Saturday. “Biden has the power to fill the board that decides his fate. That board should be full of people who believe in public postal services. And that board must be ready to fire him quickly.”
According to the Post, DeJoy—with the support of the USPS Board of Governors, which is composed entirely of Trump appointees—is “preparing to put all first-class mail onto a single delivery track… a move that would mean slower and more costly delivery for both consumers and commercial mailers.”
The postmaster general has also “discussed plans to eliminate a tier of first-class mail—letters, bills, and other envelope-sized correspondence sent to a local address—designated for delivery in two days,” the Post reported. “Instead, all first-class mail would be lumped into the same three- to five-day window, the current benchmark for nonlocal mail.”
“The plan also prevents first-class mail from being shipped by airplane,” the Postnoted, “forcing all of it into trucks and a relay of distribution depots.”
In addition to the new operational changes—which would be piled on top of the DeJoy policies that dramatically hampered USPS performance last year amid the coronavirus pandemic and national elections—the postmaster general intends to “push for significantly higher postage rates” in the name of raising revenue, according to the Post.
This is unacceptable. Trump may have left office, but his Postmaster General is still wreaking havoc even after the Congress just provided the Post Office with an additional $10 billion. He must be replaced.https://t.co/SxyiA1IKdX
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) February 13, 2021
The new details of DeJoy’s plan came as a growing number of Democratic lawmakers and outside progressives are urging Biden—who by law cannot fire the postmaster general himself—to take the forceful step of terminating every sitting member of the postal board and filling it with officials committed to preserving and strengthening the USPS as a public service. Postal governors, who can remove the postmaster general with a majority vote, must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, which Democrats narrowly control.
Late last week, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) became the first senator to call on Biden to quickly fire and replace every current member of the postal board, arguing in a letter that such as move is necessary to “restore accountability and credibility” and “send a message to future leaders that silence in the face of a campaign of sabotage will not be tolerated.”
Supporters of the move argue that replacing the entire postal board would set the stage for DeJoy’s ouster and begin the process of undoing the damage he has inflicted during his eight months in power. Biden has the authority to fire postal governors “for cause,” and proponents of removing the sitting board members argue that their complicity in DeJoy’s assault on the USPS would qualify as sufficient cause.
“They have proven to be a cabal of cowards, complicit in DeJoy’s attacks, derelict in their duties, and unwilling to hold the postmaster accountable,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) tweeted on Friday. “America deserves a clean slate.”
Biden should fire the governors of the USPS who appointed DeJoy, install new ones, and have them fire DeJoy. He should not be allowed to continue destroying the postal service. https://t.co/JLw3yUNHVe
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) February 13, 2021
Alternatively, Biden could fill the three vacant governor spots on the postal board; combined with the two Democrats currently on the board, three Biden-appointed governors would give Democrats a majority. But as Slate‘s Aaron Mak and Mark Joseph Stern wrote last week, that more cautious approach has potentially significant limitations.
“Filling these vacancies is the simplest way for Biden to get rid of DeJoy, though there is no guarantee that it will actually work,” Mak and Stern noted. “The new board would include five Democrats—but one of them, Donald Lee Moak, is a Trump-appointed moderate who, along with the rest of the board, backed DeJoy when he came under fire for his alleged corruption.”
“It appears unlikely that Moak would choose to oust a postmaster general whom he supported through this summer’s controversy,” they added. “And if Moak declined to join Biden’s nominees in firing DeJoy, the postmaster general would retain his position indefinitely.”
But the Biden White House has signaled that it is nevertheless planning to pursue the strategy of simply filling existing vacancies, saying in a statement last week that the president is focused on appointing officials who “reflect his commitment to the workers of the U.S. Postal Service—who deliver on the post office’s vital universal service obligation.”
U.S. Mail Not for Sale, a worker-led campaign sponsored by the American Postal Workers Union and the National Association of Letter Carriers, is collecting signatures for a petition calling on Biden to nominate board members who are “fully committed to vibrant, public, and universal postal services” and opposed to DeJoy’s “agenda of cutting service and slowing the mail.”
“Filling the vacancies on the postal board,” the petition reads, “is essential to build back better the Postal Service and to serve our communities and to help heal our economy.”
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This is America. A few go to happyville, the rest to miseryville.
It has been just over a year since the post office went to dim weight system wide and depending on the density of the object being shipped, prices went up by 400%. Yes, not a typo, 400%. Not 4% or 40%, 400 phucking percent. The post office has the raising prices on the peasants nailed.
Tough to make a sale when the customer looks at the shipping price and sees no difference between that and infinity, so what used to be tens of thousands that went to the post office is now zero, with at least one business destroyed. There are no doubt many moar in the same situation, destroyed and then covid hit, so double destroyed.
As an example of how demented these prices are, it costs less for example to ship from Detroit to any where in Europe (Germany as the example $63.65) than to ship the same object to California ($76.10) which used to be just below $20.
Meanwhile, the Chinese can ship from China for less than what it costs you to send something to the next block.
I get it, this is America. Where a fifteen minute ambulance ride costs $10,000 in surprise bills so Schwarzie can brag to his billionaire buddies about how great his life is and able to rip off the rubes with impunity. Miseryville is on a tear.
Exactly right.. Raise postage on Mainstreet so we can subsidize Amazon.
Amazon is locked in around 2. dollars.
The USPS needs more money for the increased amount of packages.
Why not charge Amazon?
Right! Amazon in particular was a cause for spike in the prices for the rest of us. In the last year, $26 trillion of wealth was concentrated at the top of the wealth pyramid, while avg workers lost $26 trillion in income/wealth. I suspect that Jeff Bezos stepping down from Amazon now is that he can distance himself from all the dirty work before the bodies start to smell.
We can’t lose the “last mile” delivery system here. Otherwise we will be a third world country where it’s only safe to use private shippers who wrap and deliver boxes. Our “official” postal truck will be those dirty white vans where the old logo’s been carelessly rubbed off, and the driver doesn’t really care if he hits your house or the neighbor’s.
Given all the other things the US gov wastes its money on, I’m more than OK with a “loss” for the post office since it’s for the pensions. Does anyone know the calculations for the pension pmt amounts? Hell, maybe I should consider putting in 10 yrs at the post office in my old age. Heaven knows waiting for social security to be there in 20-25 yrs is probably a fool’s errand.
@Krompobulous Michael
February 15, 2021 at 11:43 am
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Funding the health and welfare portion of the pensions is several billion dollars per year. The USPS would have shown a profit for the past 6 years without that obligation.
The absolute absurdity of it all is that the necessary contributions are calculated to fund future benefits for the next 75 years.
No other company or government pension requires such a long term funding commitment. They are being required to fund benefits for potential employees who haven’t even been born yet!
And, AFAIK, this does not include the cash benefit portion of the pension (someone correct me if I’m wrong about that).
If you are truly concerned about government waste and universal last-mile service, you should not be OK with this in any way, shape, or form.
Is there anything other than corruption stopping Congress from repealing this mandate immediately?
@Dwight
February 15, 2021 at 1:50 pm
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No!
If Amazon paid their fair share of postage the pension fund would be funded.
Why attack workers pensions? Mainstreet businesses? Grannies?
Charge Amazon
@Charles D Myers
February 15, 2021 at 6:44 pm
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Charging Amazon a fair price is not a panacea. It wouldn’t be enough to cover the pension expense.
I’m not attacking the pension or the health and welfare benefits. Read my comments carefully. I’m attacking the absurd requirement to fund 75 years of those benefits.
Actuaries can calculate the future amount of the promised benefits based on who is employed currently and can update that amount each year after adjusting for retirements and new hires. That’s the amount that should be funded each year. In fact, pension administrators are required to retain actuaries to do those calculations every year.
There’s no need to fund benefits for employees who haven’t even been born yet.
Pension funding was an issue before Amazon.
“The Postman” is back out in audio book (unfortunately not on libro fm) This story often comes to mind whenever I read about the crappification of some civil service or when some article refers to citizens as consumers.
I assume you mean David Brin’s “The Postman?” I thought of giving my local Post Office a copy of the movie “The Postman” and the 1947 “Miracle on 34th Street” to lend out to the postal carriers and other employees — along with a letter saying that if they ever wondered how the public felt about the Post Office these films capture how ‘this’ public regards the Post Office and Postal System. I did not follow through but perhaps I should. The Postal System is more sacred to me than the Capitol Building. We have Barbarians running rampant inside the gates. Maybe I should send copies to the Senators and Congressmen designated as tied to my region.
I agree about the need to resist the cruel mismanagement of the Postal Service.
However, it is my impression that the Service has a needlessly expensive retiree health program. Instead of pre-funding this system and cramping the entire operation, why not scrap the system?
The Postal Service pays into Medicare for every single one of its employees. When that employee turns 65, they could get Medicare Part A for free and pay $140 a month for Medicare Part B. A drug plan costs about $40 per month. Medicare Supplements are available in a broad price range, depending the deductibles and out of pocket maximums.
Instead of accepting Medicare, the Postal Service unions have insisted on having their own federal health plan. This is a costly frill that could be dropped. Postal retirees get a defined benefit pension, so paying $200 or so per month for standard Medicare will not bankrupt them.
There is an extra factor, I understand. Postal employees can retire with a pension before age 65, when health insurance costs are indeed horrific.
So, keep the federal plan for early retirees. The $4 billion prepayment nut will go down substantially.
I am not a Paul Ryan privateer. In fact I support Medicare for all. I am just tired of seeing an unrealistic stubborn resistance by some unions at any changes in health coverage.
Hey i have an idea! Let’s turn postal delivery into gig work! Then we can put healthcare costs as as a plus to GDP! rather than a cost that makes our perfect world appear less perfect! I mean, if one can actually afford medical care they might go get some which bites right into profits. Why should postal workers get such a deal when that money could go to bezos! making our country appear to be not so much of a sh!$hole country. No, you’re not a paul ryan privateer, you’re a “let’s cut everyone else’s pay” privateer, which makes me think that if M4A was actually possible and not just an exculpatory statement, that you would oppose it because of “unrealistic” consumers who want something for nothing. How about we end QE forever and watch your asset values plummet? But then we’d have unrealistic stubborn resistance by asset holders at any negative change in their asset values? Too bad…So sad…
Sure would solve that price problem though.
The other way would be to end the prepayment, which would make the prepayment nut disappear.
@Bob Hertz
February 15, 2021 at 5:43 am
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The postal unions want their own health benefits because Medicare is not all that great. It’s full of deductibles, co-pays, and benefit limits. Medicare for All needs to be rebranded as Improved, Extended Medicare for All, with an emphasis on no cost to the patient at the point of service.
The real problem for the USPS, however, is not the generosity of the current benefits, it’s the requirement that they fund retiree health and welfare benefits for the next 75 years.
This is absurd and totally unnecessary.
I also think that you are making an unsupported assumption that $200/month will not bankrupt a retiree. You have no way of knowing what any individual’s financial situation is.
Instead of envy at how others retire or at their medical coverage, we should demand why we should not also retire as well and receive medical care as good or better. Now seems a very good time for a great deal of “unrealistic stubborn resistance”. Was that not the idea behind supporting Biden and then holding his feet to the fire? [I voted for anyone but Trump or Biden to register my ‘No’ vote as best seemed possible.]
Last week I sent out an envelope for 2 day shipping on Monday the 9th.
It still has not arrived at its destination.
I actually contacted my congress critter and said, “Enough with the impeachment nonsense, fix the post office.” There are real and material problems going on, this is ridiculous.
For once, I actually agree with Reich’s grandstanding. On the other hand, Congress could also get off its butt and rewrite the laws surrounding the post office. They won’t.
Back in 2015, when Bernie’s campaign was just getting started, I organized a Honk for Bernie event at one of Tucson’s major intersection. The response from local drivers? LOUD!
Then came this past summer. I’m at the post office, emptying a week’s worth of mail from my post office box, and what’s this? A demonstration in front of the building? I gotta check this out!
The demonstrators were there, all right. Supporting the post office, they were.
And so were Tucson’s motorists. Beep-be-e-e-e-e-ep! Honk-honk! Ya-a-a-a-y! Thumbs up!
They put my Honk for Bernie event to shame.
Suffice it to say that Tucsonans really, really, REALLY like the post office. Oh, yes we do.
There is an easy way to fire him; change the law. Pass a single law allowing the President to fire the Postmaster General. Force Senate Republicans to abuse the filibuster to protect the bum or pass the legislation – either way is a win.
I fear that the crux of the issue is that our dear congress critters are terrified at the thought of losing a stream of contributions (bribes) from the package delivery services and others. Note that the present postmaster general donated heavily to the previous administration.
If Pres Biden was seriously interested in reforming the Postal Service ere are two opportunities –
1) Correct the present retirement funding dodge. After all Daryl Issa is no longer in power to protect this dodge which he ramrodded through congress.
2) Investigate the curious system of donations and mail contracts that just seem to have worked together to Mr. DeJoy’s mail trucking services.
What’s wrong with EVERYBODY pre-funding their retiree healthcare costs? It’s my opinion, letting USPS not do it because everybody else doesn’t, is fallacious thinking. Are they, or are they not going to eventually retire? Can someone with a straight face seriously suggest the business model of American Airlines is the right one? You know, where people pay into retirement accounts, the company goes bankrupt and sheds the obligations to the last resort, the Pension Guarantee Corporation (the American taxpayer) where they end up getting half, maybe less, of what they planned for. Get real!
Am Airlines business model works because they have perpetual bailouts, govt sponsored merger-monopolies, and when they want to slither out of retirement obligations, oops–bankruptcy.
did you start funding your retirement before you were born? That is the kind of prefunding we’re talking about. I’m curious who is holding the 70 years worth of prefunding, is it in the general fund?
The USPS should be run as a public service not a for-profit private company, and M4A should cover everyone’s healthcare costs.
Yes John, let’s get congress, the police and the armed forces to pre-fund their retirement systems too. Are they, or are they not going to eventually retire?
@John Beech
February 15, 2021 at 9:13 am
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There is nothing intrinsically wrong with pre-funding benefits. The problem for the USPS is that they are being required to pre-fund 75 years of benefits.
That is absolutely absurd. No other private or government entity is required to make that kind of long term funding commitment, and no private entity, no matter how generous, would even consider such a plan.
Note to Tegnost and John Beech:
I was in the insurance business, and I counseled people who lost company health coverage when they turned age 65. On the whole, they went onto Medicare and didn’t lose much of anything. Yes, they had to pay the Part B premium and they had to buy drug coverage. But if they were getting a decent pension, this was not a hardship for them.
Any corporation or government agency that maintains a lifetime health plan for retirees runs into huge cost problems. Old age does that, no secret.
My point is that retiree health insurance is not needed for workers after age 65. Instead of pre-funding it, drop it.
The motivation of a Republican Congress on this pre-funding issue is devious, of course. But even a broken clock is right twice a day.
In this case the devious congress behind this pre-funding-requirement conspiracy is not Republican. it is bipartisanly Depublicratic.
The Democrats share the Republicans’ hatred for the Postal Service and they both co-equally share the bipartisan agenda to destroy it and privatise the remains.
A particularly obnoxious aspect of Dempublicrat AFFECTION for the public good called the Postal Service is the love Diane Feinstein’s hubby and family have for the megabucks they can make, privatizing and selling public assets for private gain. Which I recall is the NC working definition of “corruption.” https://www.occupy.com/article/senator-feinstein-and-her-cronies-are-looting-us-post-office
“…huge cost problems. Old age does that, no secret…”
Old age did not consolidate the Medical Industrial Complex, enable the extraction of obscene levels of monopoly rents. Old age did not encourage an ancient labor union — modern guild system to obscenely raise its fees in violation of the supposed ethics that justified their exception among all labor and professional unions/guilds. Old Age did not give Big Pharma a stranglehold over the quality and costs of medicine.
I am happy for you that you are so pleased with Medicare, and wish it un-repaired on all. I too favor an augmented and repaired Medicare for all, but until such healthcare is made available I would not cast those with better care onto the same mercies I face.
Sorry I am going to lose a LOT when I go into Medicare. It’s appalling that it forces patients into HMOs or PPOs, basically care in your area. I despise it and wish there were anything I could do to put it off. Medicare gets away with sucking because US insurance generally sucks.
For starters, MDs in high cost of living areas like Manhattan, Connecticut, and even Dallas, which I do not consider to be high cost, do not take Medicare. I don’t want to have to go to shitty doctors.
And my mother has all sorts of nutty co-pays. She spends close to $10,000 year outside Medicare and she isn’t taking many meds, and none of them are super big ticket like cancer drugs. And she doesn’t see doctors very often either. If she didn’t have a decent amount of retirement savings, she’d be dead merely due to not being able to afford her health care.
Maybe I am spoiled in the Twin Cities of MN. About 98% of MN doctors and all MN hospitals take Medicare. I have a low-deductible Medicare Advantage PPO plan, and I have gone through two expensive surgeries and never paid more than $250 out of pocket.
I never encountered an out-of-network bill.
I know that specialty drugs are a huge problem. Part D plans often require a 25% copay on expensive drugs with no out of pocket limit.
Last Monday morning around 9:00 I looked out my front window to see my postman humping a very large box through the gate of a house across the street. The back door of his step van was rolled up and it was absolutely stuffed to the gills with boxes. Most, no doubt, Amazon deliveries getting their last-mile subsidy from the USPS. If this guy’s body is not destroyed in the near future he may last long enough to sell stamps in the Broadway Station. We are ruled by Gresham’s Law.
Our local post office workers gripe about Amazon now and then but they seem mostly resigned to the extra work. But that extra work previously was mostly during the holiday season, now thanks to the pandemic it’s year-round.
I will contact my officeholders about this. I will try to make whatever I “recommend” to them be as logical as a careful understanding of this post will allow me to make it.
That said, I don’t believe the problem is that the Democrats ” lack a spine “. I believe that the problem is that the Democrats are part of the conspiracy. The Democrats are actively co-conspiring with the Republicans to destroy the Postal Service on purpose and with malice aforethought so that their rich owners and patrons can privatise the profitizable parts of the wreckage, and so that Dianne Feinstein’s husband can make more money off of forcibly surplusized Postal Service properties.
The House and Senate have introduced bills specifically to repeal the healthcare benefits funding requirement. You may want to check whether your reps are cosponsors.
The House passed a similar bill in the previous congress – HR 2382. It was one of many that the Dems like to complain went nowhere in the Senate. With the Dems in control now that particular excuse won’t hold. The titles in the 2021 bills say “and for other purposes” but I don’t know if that’s just a placeholder for anything else. There was nothing else in the 2020 bill
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/695/
“H.R.695 – To amend title 5, United States Code, to repeal the requirement that the United States Postal Service prepay future retirement benefits, and for other purposes.”
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/145
I’m sure my rep and senator (Pelosi and Feinstein) will be getting right to work (making sure they go nowhere) on those bills. My attempts at communicating with them on other topics in the past got me a reply thanking me for agreeing with them, when I’d told them I didn’t agree with what they are doing.
Indeed while I agree with most of the article, I don’t see any reason to assume that Biden is all that interested in fixing this.
Is there anything in the Constitution which would prevent the “Blue States” from preparing as best they can to swoop in and take over all possible “Blue State located” Postal Services properties once the Postal Service has been abolished and liquidated?
If there is nothing in the Constitution to prevent that, then maybe the Blue States should think about planning to take over all possible Postal Service properties and assets within the Blue States when the Postal Service is abolished and liquidated . . . . . so they can set up their own Blue States Post Office. It can be totally Blue States Public with no quasi-privatizational nonsense involved. All the current Postal Service workers within the Blue States who would be de-jobbed when the Postal Service is abolished and liquidated . . . could be rehired into equivalent jobs with the Blue States Post Office.
And the Blue States Post Office would ONLY accept mail with Blue States Postage Stamps on it. If anyone living outside the Blue States Post Office Zone wanted to send anything into Blue States Post Office Territory, they would have to buy Blue States Post Office Postage Stamps for it. And if THAT little feature wouldn’t be legal, then the Blue States Post Office would only be able to function withIN the Blue States Post Office zone-of-geographical-coverage. Which would be fine. It would be part of preserving civilization withIN the Blue States Post Office zone-of-geographical-coverage. And civilization beYOND that geographical area can go hang and go die.
No. I think the US Constitution largely prohibits the states from interfering with Federal sanctioned mail and allows the Federal government to establish post offices regardless of state laws.
I am sure that is true while a Post Office or a Postal Service still exists. But what about AFTER the DC FedRegime has successfully aBOLished the Postal Service and privatized the wreckage? After that happens, there won’t BE any US Post office or Postal Service. So when there ISN’T any U S Postal ANYthing anymore, after the Two Party conspiracy to aBOLish it sucCEEDS . . . . then that probibition won’t EVen BE an ISSue anymore, WILL IT?
If it WON’T, then WHAT would preVENT the Blue States from getting ready NOW . . . to try and grab their share of the ex-Postal Service assets-in-liquidation LATER? AFTER the Postal Service has BEEN destroyed? Surely any such “Constitutional prohibition” would be mooted and irrelevant, because there would no longer even BE any U S Postal Service in exIStence to even WORRY anymore about State or Inter-State competition.
I am just trying to think of ways to save a postal mail functionality in some parts of the country after the government succeeds in its plan to exterminate the US Postal Service in order to exterminate America-wide mail delivery.
Take a look at all the renaming of post offices that Nancy Pelosi has been a co-sponsor on, and you could pick any member of Congress and have the same findings, as it’s the only bipartisan laws that get passed.
If USPS were to go away, of what use would they be then?
https://www.congress.gov/member/nancy-pelosi/P000197?searchResultViewType=expanded
Here’s one with Devin Nunes, Kevin McCarthy & Duncan Hunter as co-sponsors of a Democrat renaming, typical~
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/4672/cosponsors?r=11&s=1&searchResultViewType=expanded
My experience with the USPS is entirely at one step removed as I’m in Canada. I either send things via Canada Post that get handed over to the USPS when they get into the US or something shipped to me from the US starts out with the USPS and then gets handled by Canada Post when it gets here. I’ve found that even now going with USPS has proven time and time again to be by far the best way to go. Most recently I ordered something for my wife and the company sent it via DHL. The tracking number when used on DHL’s website showed it being picked up, then moved to a nearby DHL facility then being sent to a central facility. At this point progressed ceased for weeks. Then, one day I used the tracking number and the DHL system said the number was invalid. Despite screenshots of their own tracking page showing the order DHL couldn’t find anything in their system regarding the package and denied it ever existed. Eventually the company sent me a replacement order via USPS. It arrived in a couple of weeks. This was the strangest experience I’ve had with the private parcel companies but they’ve all screwed up badly in one way or another, and I won’t even get into the exorbitant fees UPS charges for brokerage coming into Canada. Despite all the problems the USPS is dealing with it’s still doing better than the other options. I can imagine what UPS/FedEx/DHl etc. would be like if the USPS is killed off.
Five dollars to mail a letter. And five dollars more for every state border that letter has to cross.
I am losing what little faith I had that my calls and letters have any impact on Government. I suppose it takes only time and stamp and I have plenty of both … but does our Government care how the Populace feels or care what it wants beyond practical concerns to maintain control and fashion ‘consent’ through ignorance, fear, or the apathetic sloth of the Populace.
Because TINA.
Incredibly there is no alternative to government privileges for a usury cartel and no limits to land ownership – despite both being contrary to the Bible, specifically the Old Testament.
Seems almost everything Congress does, and neglects to do, begs for misery of the masses, and then massive insurrection – at some point way too soon – by those who survive this merciless lack of humanity.
As quite a few noted above, this USPS destruction has been a fully Bipartisan effort. For instance, I’ve yet to understand how in the world California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, and her Husband Dick Blum’s Post Office Sell-off did not face Congressional, or California and National News outrage for their years long part in the destruction of such an important Public Entity. A public entity which employs around half a million people, many of them minorities, in a time of massive job losses.
This seems geared, for a few major examples to: further endanger those who rely on the mail for vital medications; further decimate small businesses; and further explode the country’s criminal eviction and foreclosure crisis. How many horrid landlords and banks will be pouncing on the late rent and mortgage checks of millions of renters and home mortgages as an excuse to evict and foreclose?
It also seems geared to further the goal of a ghastly cashless society which would be deadly to millions, even those who are doing okay financially, when the power goes out.
Utter, and deadly, insanity.
gotta run
If the Overclass goal is to kill 7 or so billion people over the next century and make it look like an accident, or an accidental convergence or pile-up of accidents, the death-by-power-outage of a cash-forbidden only-digital-money society would be a pretty handy accident.
Don’t you think?
And by the way, the threat of insurrection by the millions of tomorrow’s noovoe poor is why President Biden is already demanding that Congress pass the first stages of Liberal Fascist Pig ” common sense” gun control.