Touch Donald Trump’s appointed U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Postmaster General and get slimed, at least figuratively. After all, his own company XPO Logistics is in direct competition with the USPS and was favored especially during the November election through December. The Republicans have tried desperately to privatize that which was never designed to be privatized. Let us look at some of their dirty tricks.
The USPS is an integral part of Americans’ lives bringing everything from life-saving prescriptions to food to good news wrapped in a greeting card. Granted, email cut a hole in sending letters, but the independent agency that was established in 1775 has adjusted.
Our founding fathers believed the USPS was so important that Benjamin Franklin was appointed the very first postmaster general. What a dreadful decline down to Louis DeJoy. The Postal Service Act formalized the agency in 1792, and it became a cabinet-level position in 1872.
Just before the biggest push of the USPS’s year, Christmas, DeJoy handed his own company a contract for “Christmas” service running from November 30, 2019 to June 30, 2022 for nearly $26,000,000, according to Citizens for Ethics in Washington (CREW).
President Joe Biden cannot fire DeJoy, but he can change the Republican-dominated USPS board of governors. Once Democrats have the majority, they can fire him.
DeJoy stood before a House hearing Wednesday. When he was asked whether he would force his own business to comply with the restrictions he has placed on the USPS, he sheepishly replied “No.”
The Congressional Republicans have forced the USPS to pay its employees’ retirement fund upfront, stood back, and gleefully watched as it struggled financially under the weight of that burden. No other government agency has this requirement.
When asked whether that retirement fund had been placed into Amazon stock rather than Treasury bonds, DeJoy admitted the agency would have made “bazillions of dollars” more.
One postal worker told The Bipartisan Report when asked about how DeJoy’s changes were going:
‘It’s bad.’
DeJoy disclosed his stock in XPO Logistics worth $30 to $75 million. And by the way, he had also been the CEO of the businesses supply chain business. If that was not damning enough, he also served on the company’s board of directors.
The “Christmas” contract has been rather murky. When was it awarded? How much did DeJoy benefit from that contract? He began the process of divesting from its stock, but that process is still ongoing.
DeJoy has dealt the USPS a serious blow by:
- ‘causing or exacerbating delays in mail delivery since he became postmaster general in June 2020.’
- implementing changes “at the agency that significantly delayed mail delivery over the summer”
- not solving problems with delivery that persisted through the fall elections and holiday season, NBC News reported
- implementing new additional changes at USPS that will further slow down the delivery of first-class mail
- tearing down and trashing rapid-sorting machines worth millions of dollars
- allowing his company to compete with the USPS.
CREW has requested records of how DeJoy is handling his conflicts of interest. Then it sued after the USPS refused to release them. The suit is ongoing.
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
