It's now or never for the Post Office. That's what Louis DeJoy, the new Postmaster General, seems to think, and he's cutting costs with an ax.
In
eight weeks, the Trump donor and loyalist has demanded that carriers
leave their post offices only once a day (leaving some mail
undelivered), banned overtime, and insisted that mail sorting machines
be shut off early, so additional sorting has to be done by hand.
 |
| The USPS competes with commercial carriers, although it also subcontracts with some to provide "last mile" package service. |
DeJoy
cheerfully admitted that these steps would slow down mail delivery, and
it has -- but he assures everyone that the slowdown won't affect election
results. Uh-huh.
The slowdown already tangled up some of the state primaries. Ohio's, for one.
House
Democrats have objected and called for a review of the changes. They've
also authorized a $25 billion line of credit to ease the agency's
cash-strapped budget. Right now, the Post Office is on a lifeline, a
Treasury loan that will run out in September.
Trump
has insisted that the Post Office will get no more help from the White
House (Constitution be damned) unless it raises its rates fourfold. No
one took that idea seriously. Instead, DeJoy was called in, elected by
the postal Board of Governors at Trump's suggestion.
DeJoy
is a logistics exec who -- along with his wife, the appointee for
ambassador to Canada -- owns $30 to $75 million in assets in USPS
competitors or contractors. DeJoy wrote that he has “done what is
necessary" to make sure there's no conflict of interest. He also denies
he's influenced by the White House, although he gave $2 million to
Trump's campaign or to Republican causes since 2016, according to the
Washington Post.
On
Friday, DeJoy unleashed a restructuring that shuffles two dozen
old-hand execs as if they were pick-up-sticks. DeJoy's plan will also
cut the number of Post Office regions to 4 from 7, institute a hiring
freeze, and start to request voluntary early retirements.
DeJoy
is de-emphasizing institutional knowledge, but his other objectives are
unclear. Most immediate is the prospect that DeJoy is pursuing a Trump
campaign strategy to minimize mail-in ballots, which, some say, are
mostly from Democrats.
DeJoy
is setting up the agency as a for-profit arm of government, according
to unnamed "postal analysts" quoted in the Washington Post.
Or
setting it up to be privatized, a pipe dream for conservatives at least
since the Reagan years. Snopes.com, the fact-checking website, states
that in June 2018, "this administration [was], in written record,
proposing and planning to sell the post office to private corporations,
i.e. privatizing." (Snopes says that the election-fraud claim is
"unproven.")
Whatever DeJoy is up to, he's looking to do it fast. It's all in the service of ... what?
Is
it possible that DeJoy's changes are benign? That he's really just
trying to cut costs at the USPS? What would happen if Trump refused
further USPS funding? How could DeJoy's actions benefit DeJoy?
"FedEx and US Mail Boxes" by Victor Wong (sfe-co2) is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
"FedEx and US Mail Boxes" by Victor Wong (sfe-co2) is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
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