In what appears to become a “slash and burn” approach to remaking the Executive Branch of our federal government during the second Trump Administration, I recommend that billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy start with the U.S. Postal Service.
No, I’m not referring to the rank-and-file dedicated employees who staff our post offices, and sort and deliver our mail every day in all kinds of weather conditions. They proudly honor their creed of “neither rain no sleet nor gloom of night” will interfere with mail delivery.
Visitors to Benjamin Franklin’s grave at the Old Church Burial Ground in downtown Philadelphia might be hearing him spinning in his coffin in disappointment at what has happened to the once-proud Post Office Department he started as America’s first postmaster general in 1775.
Two years later, the U. S. Constitution empowered Congress to establish local post offices and post roads. Think of that, our original roads were constructed so that they could be used for distributing the mail.
Originally, the Post Office Department was part of the President’s Cabinet until 1971 when its name was changed to the U. S. Postal Service, and it was placed under its own Board of Governors.
Today, the 75th postmaster general is former corporate executive Louis DeJoy who was appointed during the first Trump Administration in 2020. A former corporate executive, DeJoy was a major Republican fundraiser, and his company continues to hold multi-million dollar delivery contracts with the Postal Service.
When you see 18-wheelers on the interstate from XPO Logistics, they likely could be hauling mail for the USPS. Although retired from that company, DeJoy remains a major shareholder. Yet, no conflict of interest has been recognized by postal officials.
So why start with the U. S. Postal Service in reducing the size and cost of the federal government?
First, it has more than 600,000 employees with about 100,000 of them in administrative jobs not included in the federal civil service. The USPS predicted it would lose $4.5 billion in FY2023, but the actual net loss was $6.5 billion. FY2024 is expected to be worse.
In short, DeJoy’s leadership (or lack of it) has turned the USPS into a classic example of bureaucratic bungling. I say we should fix it or hand it over to UPS and/or FedEx.Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com.
