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If that doesn’t sound like a big deal, consider the small-business owners who rely on first-class mail to send important financial documents, or the low-income Americans with diabetes who pay to have their insulin delivered via the USPS. Higher postal costs and slower delivery are matters of financial solvency and physical health.
DeJoy says his plan will save the Post Office by lowering both consumer expectations and costs. But he is hardly a trustworthy messenger.
Indeed, his appointment last June and his actions since then have turned a previously low-key position into another point of political polarization, and another lightning rod for Trump administration drama.
That dubious induction into the role only grew worse as the 2020 elections loomed — in the midst of a deadly pandemic. It was widely understood that a combination of pandemic accommodations made in voting laws and the danger of gathering indoors would mean record-setting numbers of Americans voting by mail.
And yet in the months leading up to Election Day, DeJoy instituted cost-cutting measures that created longer delivery times for mail service, at the same time that the then-president was undermining public confidence in mail-in voting.
How are taxpayers supposed to trust that DeJoy has our best interests in mind and is not — cue the 2022 election race — trying to make it more difficult to exercise our right to vote?
That isn’t to say that the Post Office doesn’t have real problems. The agency carries $188.4 billion in liabilities; he says the next decade could bring $160 billion in additional liabilities Service is certainly mixed, especially in crowded urban centers — I don’t know a single New Yorker who hasn’t experienced long lines and long waits, including during a pandemic that made crowding into a small space a significant health risk.
There is no question that the Post Office needs help. But DeJoy has shown a shocking lack of regard for the agency, has alienated a significant chunk of the public and has failed to offer a path forward that does not diminish the service.
The Post Office should not be a partisan agency, and is set up to avoid partisan spats — that’s why it’s so egregious that DeJoy was put in the role in the first place, and it’s the same reason President Joe Biden can’t simply fire him.
Only the board of governors that appointed DeJoy can fire him. But that doesn’t mean there are no options. To begin with, Americans can demand that DeJoy resign. And Biden can remove members of the board of governors for cause, though that, too, runs the risk of being perceived as compounding the partisanship.
The most straightforward route involves the board removing DeJoy. Currently, there are three Republicans, one Democrat, and three open seats on the board; if the Senate confirms all of Biden’s nominees to those open seats, then the board will have the power to remove DeJoy if he refuses to step down.
Solving problems in a public institution requires broad trust in the person in charge.
The Trump administration hollowed out American confidence in government and in some of our most valued institutions. DeJoy is one of Trump’s legacies. If we want to save the Post Office, then he needs to go.
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