News

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.

2023 defense budget was closer to $860 billion

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.

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.

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.

Also, insurance doesn't care if you are almost out and it will take three weeks to get there. Sorry, we can't authorize payment for another ten days!

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..

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

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).

https://facts.usps.com/top-facts/

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 insist