Biden Has One Weird Trick To Mail Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Straight To GTFO-Ville
"Get used to me," Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told the House Oversight Committee during a contentious hearing yesterday, in which he responded to questions about his tenure by saying he intends to be around for "a long time." The man plowed $1.2 million into Donald Trump's campaign, and he intends to get his money's worth, darnit!
"I'm not a political appointee," snarked the former RNC finance chair. "I'd really appreciate if you'd get that straight."
But perhaps he spoke too soon.
Just hours after DeJoy shot his mouth off in Congress, the White House announced three nominees to the nine-seat USPS Board of Governors, which would shift the balance of power and allow the panel to give that asshole the boot. (President Biden can't fire them directly. But he can appoint that board!) Assuming they are all confirmed, former deputy postmaster general Ronald Stroman, former general counsel for the American Postal Workers Union Anton Hajjar, and voting rights advocate Amber McReynolds would go a long way toward diversifying a board that's been largely white and male, despite presiding over a workforce that skews heavily Black and female.
And they should be able to finally put a stop to the one-man wrecking ball that has decimated mail delivery in this country.
"I would suggest we are in a death spiral," DeJoy told the committee, ignoring the fact that post office worked just fine before he got there and used his magic to make Christmas cards mailed in December show up in February and mail-in ballots show up NEVER. So efficient!
"We cannot, even with this legislation, we cannot continue to lose money," he spluttered. Although he failed to explain why we "cannot," or exactly why the post office must be run as a self-sustaining entity. Nor did he acknowledge that the service wouldn't be in such a deep hole if Republicans hadn't cut it off at the fiscal knees in 2006 via the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which requires it to fund up to 75 years of pension liability upfront — a mandate foisted on no other governmental agency.
"The years of financial stress, underinvestment, unachievable service standards, and lack of operational precision have resulted in a system that does not have adequate resiliency to adjust and adapt to changing circumstances," DeJoy warned. Obviously, the only solution is to let him keep raising postage rates, cutting overtime, removing sorting machines, and increasing reliance on ground transport over air.
In yesterday's hearing, DeJoy wouldn't even agree that two-day local delivery is a reasonable goal, telling Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi that the post office is "evaluating all service standards," and anyway "you need to define local."
"It sounds like your solution to the problems we've identified is just surrender," Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said.
Which is perhaps putting it generously. We would probably call it sabotage, although we look forward to calling it BYE, BITCH. And not a moment too soon!
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Liz Dye lives in Baltimore with her wonderful husband and a houseful of teenagers. When she isn't being mad about a thing on the internet, she's hiding in plain sight in the carpool line. She's the one wearing yoga pants glaring at her phone.
