It seems that there is one thing that liberals figured out when it came to COVID, and that is that there is a built-in excuse that they can use for just about everything.
Any problem that they want to scapegoat, they use that. I mean, why not, it’s not like anyone is going to challenge them on it and certainly not within their own party.
The problem with that on a person-to-person level is that it is really hitting people quite personally. Over the past year, people have come to rely on modes of communication and commerce that they probably had never thought of. That being said, things like the post office can be quite expensive, and let’s be real here….who is busting out the typewriter to send letters to their families these days?
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Tuesday announced plans to slow mail delivery standards and cut hours at some post offices as part of a 10-year strategy to stabilize the struggling agency.
Details of the long-awaited plan come at a time of intense scrutiny on the U.S. Postal Service over persistent delivery delays under DeJoy, a major GOP donor who took over the agency last summer. The plan also includes a proposal to consolidate underused post offices, hinted at a potential postage rate increase and detailed investments in new delivery vehicles, among other things.
Facing an expected $160 billion in losses over the next decade, DeJoy and postal executives stressed the need to cut costs and modernize the agency’s operations as its workload increasingly shifts from handling letters to hauling more and more packages.
“This is about the long-term viability of the organization under the two missions that we have that are legislated, that is deliver to every house six days a week and be self-sustaining,” DeJoy said. He announced the plans at a webinar with other postal service officials.
DeJoy said the biggest change would be a relaxing of the current first-class letter delivery standard of one-to-three-days to a one-to-five-day benchmark. Postal leadership said the longer timeframe would apply only to mail going to the farthest reaches of its network and that 70% of first-class mail will still be delivered within a three-day standard.
The agency said it will request advisory opinions from the independent Postal Regulatory Commission on potential changes to delivery standards as well as other initiatives that “change the nature of postal services on a nationwide or substantially nationwide basis” according to federal law.
Democrats immediately criticized the plan. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it would undermine the mission of the agency. Sen. Gary Peters, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, warned it could harm service for people who get prescription drugs and financial documents through the mail. Rep. Gerald E. Connolly said the strategy “guarantees the death spiral of the United States Postal Service.”