Summary
Donald Trump is considering privatizing the US Postal Service due to its financial losses, a move that could disrupt shipping and push hundreds of thousands of federal workers out of government.
Citing the USPS’s financial losses, Trump argued the agency should not rely on government subsidies.
While his specific privatization plans remain unclear, Trump previously clashed with the USPS during his first term, attempting to shift control of key functions like labor relations and rate-setting to the Treasury Department.
This move could significantly alter the structure and operations of the USPS if implemented.
It reminds me of how the right-wing politicians are trying to privatize Correios (the Brazilian Postal Service) here in Brazil. They alleged a similar thing: financial losses, inefficiency, and so on. While Correios doesn’t offer a really wonderful service, it’s really doubtable if a private company would improve it (spoiler: it won’t).
the conservative push to destroy this incredibly successful organization continues. its already been punished more than any other entity by requiring things no other business anywhere is required to.
starve the beast. theyve forced it to make financial considerations that now put it in pretend financial trouble so they can point at it as a failure.
if the USPS was allowed to run as any other business today it would be far more successful on paper than it already is, but conservatives just cant live with that.
Good thing the Democratic administration replaced DeJoy and passed some protections while they were in charge… oh. wait
Can’t replace him until a board of people fire him…and they didn’t.
There were empty seats on the board that would have tipped the balance, sitting vacant for the entirety of Biden’s term.
Not to excuse Biden, because he has fucked up on multiple fronts, but aren’t those appointments dependent on Senate confirmations and thus sitting mostly empty under Obama, which let the Cheeto Bandito take over in the first place? And IDK if the Senate would have confirmed any Biden nominees. Wouldn’t have hurt to try though.
Biden appointed, and the Senate confirmed, enough postal board members to get rid of DeJoy if Biden wanted.
But DeJoy is still there, and it’s 1000% because Biden did not want to get rid of him.
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Biden has made 4 appointments that are waiting for the senate to confirm. The earliest is from February of last year. I think he should have started earlier but to say it’s 1000% on him is false.
yep, the guy who demanded the dismantlement of all the new high speed sorting machines. proof biden is just a big ol conservative
it shouldn’t have to be ‘profitable’ in the first place.
yep. no one ever complains about the profitability of our ‘defense’ system which seems to do more selling than defending.
It was never intended to be. That’s why it has the word “service” right there in its name.
The USPS spent $89.5 billion in operations this year, which means that even if they didn’t collect a single dime from anybody they could serve everyone in the country with every package and letter that they already did in the entirety of 2024 for about 4.475% of the Defense Department’s expenditures in that same time frame – which are just under two trillion dollars.
The Defense Department as a whole Hoovers up about 24% the Federal budget.
Therefore the fact that the conservatives have successfully bamboozled everyone into believing that the USPS should be run as a “business” in the first place is incredible. Would you support about 0.1 percent of your Federal taxes spent on granting you free Postal Service access forever? I probably would.
Wait, is it possible to run national defense as a business that’s for profit? I mean if we all have to live in a capitalist shit hole anyways why not go for broke?
We’re watching in real time what we’ve criticized other generations for letting things happen. Wars, electric transportation, malls for developers, Citizen United, etc., etc.,
Success is measured in how many billionaires it makes. I don’t see the USPS making any billionaires. /s
For fuck’s sake, it’s not meant to make money, it’s a public service - it’s literally in the name!
I wish more countries governments would get their head out of their capitalistic arses and understand that the services they run aren’t meant to be profitable - that’s what taxes are meant to be for!
You’re going to have to get with the times. Everything has to make money or it’s scrapped including us.
Amen, brother.
I love that so much I might have to steal it
As did I, brother.
Edit - I don’t know why I keep calling you brother.
I just need to know if it’s '80s wrestler, clergyman, or motorcycle club, I don’t really mind in any case I just need to know what voice to read it in…
Hmm of those choices I’m going with motorcycle club. It’s the closest for sure.
I can probably pull off 80s wrestler in a pinch.
I’m no economist but at some point doesn’t that fall apart? If everything needs to be generating then aren’t we creating a vacuum at the bottom or whatever? Money has to come in and go out equally in the end, no?
It does, and that’s manifested in increasing labour requirements, and consumer spending.
The US solves it by using slaves and debt.
Huh…
Maybe if we just don’t think about that, things will turn out perfectly fine.
The model has to change once you reach the vacuum state. Usually via violent implosion.
Every thing the gop has done to the usps had hurt it more… but everytime I hear “it doesn’t make money” well it did before the absolutely idiotic idea to make sure pensions were super funded forward. Ontop of that. Why the fuck does a government organization need to make money? I hate this whole “run a country like a business” bullshit so much. Money makes everything worse.
Same for public transit.
A bit of compensation isn’t a crazy idea, but it doesn’t have to break even with the money it does bring in. It’s not like we have a ton of toll roads either, it’s not an issue to spend billions on another lane or two.
USPS doesn’t lose a dime. It’s a service. It costs money to run.
You know, like a government office does.
The GOP exists to oppose anything that serves the common good. They exist to transfer public wealth to private interests. That is their entire mandate
Which is why they want to privatize everything… easier to grift from. I just find it hilarious that they take full power, fuck everything up, lose power and point to things saying “see it doesn’t work!” And their lapdogs just eat it up. Yes when you cripple something it will fail, and then you blame it or the dems and hey you get to do it again!
The postal service doesn’t lose money, it costs money.
By this logic, the interstate highway system and the military both lose billions! Is Trump going to privatize them too?
Thats not even a true statement.
The postal service makes money, but any surpless is automatically taken by Congress.
In the early 2000s the GOP passed a law requiring the postal service to upfront load the retirement funds of new employees, creating a massive debt burden.
Also, Congress has removed their ability to modernize equipment and fleets, forcing them to continue repairing aged equipment.
Not to mention, DeJoy, Trump’s installment during his first term, has done everything he can to dismantle any modernization because he wants the Post Office sold at rock bottom prices so he can buy it, get this, because he owns competing companies.
modernize equipment and fleets
They’re getting those new electric trucks though.
Which Trump is already talking about cancelling the contract for…
And the company making them isn’t doing the best job at it… Even though they got a shot ton of money and have only made like 90 of these things of the 3000 they are contracted for
They were getting new electric fleets, the Umpa-lumpa in chief already said hes canx’ing that.
I, too, have trouble remembering how many “L” s are in canceling.
Education is being defunded too.
Further reading: https://www.nalc.org/news/the-postal-record/2022/may-2022/document/Postal-reform.pdf
I skipped to the part about 2003 - if my reading comprehension is right, USPS was in the black. When congress noticed, they made financial magic by using the pension funding mandate to help hide how bad the federal deficit had ballooned during that administration? This is such political theater.
Yeah, I consulted chatgpt for sources on the history behind why that 75-year funding requirement was enacted. The other link it gave me was this: https://www.epi.org/press/news_from_epi_retiree_health_pre-funding_is_primary_cause_of_usps_shor/
Was there a better reason Pension Funding was even brought up as an issue worth legislating for? Was there some scare trend of businesses scamming people out of their pensions? Source?
Don’t forget National and State parks - public lands in general. WhY ArEn’T tHeY tUrNiNg a PRooooFiT??
You’re right, and that one isn’t even hyperbole. They earnestly want to turn the parks into oil fields and cut down the forests.
“Land of Many Abuses”
Dont forget the fire department
And police!
Don’t give him ideas. He probably would.
Can’t spend money on sinfrastructure.
Get ready for more train derailments!
Don’t give it ideas.
Don’t tell the Trump administration about the toll highway system in France
Its almost funny how cartoonishly evil the Republicans are. They literally are shutting down all public utilities, giving contracts to the rich, spending trillions in the name of “cutting spending”, kicking out random people, and im pretty sure a Republican has openly decared friendship to be his greatest enemy (because “woke” or smth). If this was a simulation the developers are getting extremely lazy with this plotline, the villans are literally just evil.
Its cause people are delusional and think they are the party of “small government” just because they lower taxes in the short term.
*For the rich while increasing taxes on the poor
Oh, the financial losses that can be directly linked back to Louis DeJoy’s actions while in charge to actively sabotage the service, the same DeJoy that Trump appointed to sabotage the service?
They murdered it so they could sell it off, don’t let them claim otherwise
Pretty sure the issues started well before that fuckface was in charge.
USPS is obligated to deliver everywhere. Uncle Steve who lives out in the middle of buttfuck nowhere gets mail service just like Cousin Roger who lives in the middle of town. Shocking literally no one, having to deliver to multiple Uncle Steve’s costs way more money then it brings in.
Then there’s inflation, and also just less folks sending mail as a general thing because e-mail is instantaneous and free.
The pension funding requirement was the overwhelming majority of their losses, but that’s been resolved as of 2022.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/06/politics/biden-postal-service-reform-law-signing/index.html
In 06 the Republican Congress decided USPS was too profitable and they imposed funding pensions out for 75 years.
Citing the USPS’s financial losses, Trump argued the agency should not rely on government subsidies.
It already doesn’t. USPS is entirely internally funded. What a fucking idiot.
Much of their operating costs is due to the insane pension funding they have to do. Way more than other parts of the government.
Wow, so wild that the agency you crippled with a nonsensical pension funding requirement is no longer running as efficiently as you demand! what a huge surprise, no one could have seen this coming!
Super cool that the Democrats didn’t reverse that insane requirement btw.
Super cool that the Democrats didn’t reverse that insane requirement btw.
The Democrats did reverse that insane requirement. In 2022.
The democratic party is a limp dick.
Yes, but to be fair to them they did actually manage to reverse that particular nonsensical requirement.
Fuck the fascists. We fought the British over less tyrannical shit than what Trump is promising.
The beatings will continue until a revolution begins
Just like the first time
doesn’t USPS have some special legal status? how are supposed to be things like court orders delivered if not by national mail carrier?
Who cares about the Constitution?
2-bit countries don’t need shit like that.
It isn’t a business, it is a service, it costs money that our taxes pay, so we don’t have to pay shitty private companies. (And it still makes money) “Let’s make the Mail just like ISPs” is a stupid take.
We should be making ISPs more like the mail.
Fun fact, lots of ISPs basically are, and Trump wants to ruin that as well. The coop I work for has a FANTASTIC network, and the pay is excellent as well. If it becomes a shitty profit seeking private company, that will all change.
… it costs money that our taxes pay …
Nope. USPS is entirely internally funded. No tax money goes to it at all.
Given the country’s current mood, is it really wise for the oligarchs to threaten the livelihoods of the very group that gave us the expression going postal?
United Tesla Shipping…UTS
United Tesla Institute… UTI
Shipping Tesla Institution…STI
So many possibilities!
Call me dumb… but what does UTS actually stand for?
Google says University of Technology Sydney.
Adding “medical” to the Google search returns… University of Technology Sydney, and a health consultant in Australia.So… I’m going to go with University of Technology Sydney.
While Google results have tanked the past few years, I can’t find a combination of keywords that even suggests some sort of sexual/urinary (“naughty bits”) infection.DuckDuckGo returns Ultimate Tennis Showdown.
Adding “medical” suggests to add “syndrome” and got me to “Ulnar Tunnel Syndrome” (“ulnar neuropathy at the wrist where it passes through the ulnar tunnel”)… So, too much masturbation? I’m struggling to make it naughtyYeah… I looked it up on Wikipedia and got similar results, plus a river… IDK what they were trying to go for.
Its just like the UPS but with a T. They could also have the all new USTS!.. The United States Tesla Shipping!
Nah, Elon’s all about dat X. He’ll just call them all X.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Sincerely,
The UK, where we already had that stupid fucking idea.
