It's worth noting that Congress has been trying to force the USPS to run itself like a self-sustaining business for decades at this point. It started in 1970 with the Postal Reorganization Act, which transformed it from a government department to an independent government entity that was expected to fund its operations entirely through its own revenue. Then in 2006, a Republican-controlled Congress passed the PAEA which required the USPS to pre-fund retiree health benefits seventy-five years into the future¹. Congress even restricted the USPS's ability to set its own rates, expand its services or close unprofitable locations without political interference.
¹ The retiree funding requirement was only changed recently when Biden signed the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 into law.
USPS does more or less teeter on the edge of solvent and sustainable depending on how you measure and when you measure. All things considered, I think that's pretty damn good. Pretty much no other government service can claim that. I think the retiree funding requirement is/was dumb and an unnecessary handicap but the way USPS runs itself should be a model for other government services. The only reason we don't look at USPS as a massive success is because the idiot left brains want it to be run like a charity and the idiot right brains want it gone entirely.
nozzlegear|1 year ago
¹ The retiree funding requirement was only changed recently when Biden signed the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 into law.
potato3732842|1 year ago
taurknaut|1 year ago
That's the narrative, but this was always a blatant bid to destroy the USPS. There's simply no other explanation.