Incoming president Donald Trump — whose Cabinet nominations show he seems anxious to slash, burn or otherwise foul up federal agencies, policies and or programs — is ruminating privatizing the U.S. Postal Service.
According to the Washington Post, Trump cites the agency's financial problems as reason enough to let the private sector handle the nation's mail, and has even discussed it with his selection to be the next commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick.
Admittedly, the USPS has had long-standing financial problems. The agency lost $9.5 billion in fiscal year 2024, and needs yearly appropriations from Congress to make up the hefty shortfalls.
But taking the country's constitutionally-enshrined mail delivery service, once the envy of the world, and placing it on the hands of private operators — who will no doubt base deliveries and routes on whether a profit can be made — is a cure that's far worse than the ailment.
The Postal Service took in $80 billion in revenue last year. For certain, it must be improved — and can be. But not scrapped.
A 250-year tradition
This country has handled the daily task of mail delivery since 1775, first as the U.S. Postal Office Department, a cabinet-level agency until the USPS was created in 1970.
Government mail carriers — and the importance of this can't be overstated — deliver mail and packages to anyplace within the U.S., no matter how remote or rural, and sometimes while facing challenging weather conditions.
That's 158 million addresses and locations across the country.
Is the Postal Service perfect? No. Chicagoans in many neighborhoods have complained for years about slow mail service. So much so, a congressional field hearing was held here on the matter in 2021.
But nationally, the service is good enough that the Postal Service's private competitors, such as UPS and DHL, often turn to the agency deliver their items the last mile or so to reach consumers.
What private sector company has the capacity to take this over? And what agency can handle the duties of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the top-notch federal agents and forensic experts who solve a host of crimes from mail fraud to catching Unabomber Ted Kaczynski?
With millions of Americans depending on the USPS to deliver medicines, checks and other important items along with cards, letters and packages, the Postal Service is too important to sacrifice.
Change is needed — but not this
Congress should be concerned about the notion of privatizing the Postal Service. And to the body's GOP majority: Nearly 60% of postal ZIP codes lie in the rural areas that make up much of Trump-supporting America.
Another cause for alarm is that the USPS will be placed under the microscope of Trump's new and Orwellian-sounding Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — neither of whom have any experience running, or even working in, a major public agency.
And then there's Louis DeJoy, who has managed to hang on as postmaster general since Trump appointed him in 2020.
DeJoy thinks he can save the USPS by giving customers longer delivery times and increased postal fees. One of President Joe Biden's biggest failures was not using his ability to dump the Postal Service's board of governors and replace them with people who would, in turn, get rid of DeJoy.
But at least DeJoy supported passage of the Postal Reform Act of 2022, which contains a provision that repeals a requirement that forced USPS to prefund its retiree health care benefits 75 years in advance. Most systems are funded under a gradual, pay-as-you go method. Coughing up the astronomical amounts each year cost the USPS $5.5 billion per annum.
The agency must be allowed time to operate without that massive financial weight around its neck.
Meanwhile, the USPS said it's saved $2 billion in transportation spending over the last three years and has reduced operations by 45 million work hours in that same time.
It's important to remember that the USPS is about public service, not a profit center. Guaranteed mail delivery is as much a hallmark of a developed nation as public education, mass transit and clean drinking water.
None of those belong solely in private hands. Neither does the Postal Service.
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