The postmaster persisted

The email pointed to a Newsweek article reporting that the United States Postal Service plans to reduce its workforce by 50,000 members to reach a “break even” point.

Booker damned DeJoy for that, for imminent postal hikes, and, most especially, for past political sins, citing the Democratic bête noire, former President Donald Trump. “Before Trump picked DeJoy as Postmaster General, he was the Deputy Finance Chair of the Republican National Committee — and one of Trump’s major campaign donors,” Booker reported.

DeJoy also reduced the number of USPS collection points, which, in Booker’s telling, amounted to him having “slowed mail and removed ballot drop-off boxes at the peak of the pandemic and the 2020 election.”

That was on top of an open letter to President Joe Biden by more than 80 progressive groups, earlier in August, complaining of DeJoy’s “destructive leadership.” They demanded Biden help stack the deck with his picks to the Postal Board of Governors with the goal of pushing out DeJoy.

“Given the current board is nearly entirely male and majority white, nominees should more accurately represent the postal workforce and the nation’s population,” the letter stated. “Special consideration should also be given to nominees who have a labor union background and/or a demonstrated history of valuing the importance of workers.”

Calls for DeJoy’s political scalp are nothing new. In August 2020, protesters chanted and stuffed fake absentee ballots into the entrance of his Washington, D.C., apartment building.

DeJoy’s D.C. residence is in Adams Morgan, one of the nation’s deepest blue enclaves, as the district in 2020 voted for Biden over Trump 92.15% to 5.40%. The protests at the time may have backfired, taking place as they did early on a Saturday morning when even many liberals like to sleep in.

In any event, DeJoy has pressed forward with his reforms, paring back the points of collection, consolidating and closing post office locations, shedding jobs, and progressively jacking up shipping prices. He has trimmed his sails at times but generally pushed for cuts and reforms where he can get them.

DeJoy has been able to do this, even during the Biden administration, because USPS has structural financial problems that his reforms are addressing.

“On a U.S. generally accepted accounting principles basis, the Postal Service had a net loss of $4.9 billion for 2021, compared to a net loss of $9.2 billion for 2020,” when DeJoy was appointed, USPS reported in November 2021. “The Postal Service’s operating revenue was $77.0 billion for 2021, an increase of $3.9 billion, or 5.3 percent, compared to the prior year.”

He also seems to enjoy being the target of protest or at least is determined to make the best of it.

At a presentation before the American Enterprise Institute in late July, DeJoy said, “I’m also known as the evil postmaster general. So if you’re not laughing at my jokes, I’m going to turn you all into frogs.”

Jokes aside, DeJoy also indicated that he believes he’s righting the state of shipping.

“When I joined the Postal Service in June of 2020, we were about three months into the pandemic, and our financial condition was dire. We were forecasted to lose $20 billion in 2020 and potentially run out of cash in September of that year,” he said.

DeJoy argued that he has substantially turned that around. Many of the USPS customers who spoke to the Washington Examiner gave his agency some respect for moving mail and packages during COVID-19.

IT worker Jim Parshall described his experience over the last few years as being “Noneventful. Other than the carrier being a dingus. But, as far as delivery goes, all fine. No lost stuff.”

Cartoonist Ben Anthony said it could be worse: “Service has been good like 75% of the time, though that other 25% has been late, banged up, and sat in facilities for weeks on end. Three out of 4 ain’t too bad, I guess.”