In 2024, United States Postal SERVICE operating expenses were around $90 billion. Around 90% of that was covered internally through income from things like postage and P.O. Box rentals. Name another government agency or service that almost entirely pays for itself without any subsidizing from taxpayer money... The USPS is a public SERVICE, not a for-profit company, and hasn't been funded by taxpayer dollars since the '70s. So it's ridiculous when people start talking about how USPS "loses" all this money every year, especially when they start comparing it to companies like UPS and FedEx. Apples and oranges. Nobody talks about other national public services in that light, because nobody is trying to privatize them in order to make themselves rich. Look at the U.S. Forest Service. They "lose" around $9 Billion per year (fiscal year 2024 budget around $9.32 Billion), but nobody bats an eye or is even talking about it, because nobody's out there trying to privatize it. Hell, the Department of Defense "loses" the better part of a Trillion dollars every year. Maybe we should privatize that? Actually, maybe I shouldn't give the ruling elite any ideas... Gross mismanagement of USPS has nothing to do with its employees, who, let's not forget, are significantly underpaid compared to established industry standards (UPS, for example). Mail carriers, for instance, have been working without a contract since May 20th of 2023. (568 days as of this comment) Many USPS employees are working 60+ hour weeks, and still having to take second jobs on top of their full-time employment with USPS in order to support their families at this point. That's a pretty hard sell as far as trying to incentivize potential new hires. It's not an easy job, it doesn't pay very well, and it's not very well respected. USPS is wildly understaffed, which is one of the main reasons why service has declined in recent years. Hiring more people sounds like it would cost a great deal more money, but if they were fully staffed, you would only be paying everyone their standard hourly rate, instead of hemorrhaging the absolutely massive amount of overtime that's being paid out right now, along with all the grievance money from constantly breaking everyone's contracts. Stop talking about converting to electric vehicles and all this other BS about privatizing in order to line the pockets of some billionaires, and start paying your employees a decent wage. Service will improve, customer satisfaction will increase, and people will actually want to do the job again. (Working for the Post Office used to be such a great job opportunity, it was actually difficult to get in! Now you just need a pulse...) Then educate the public on the fact that the United States Postal Service is exactly that, public service - that almost entirely pays for itself. By the way, mail carriers never got any kind of hazard pay or anything like that for continuing to deliver during the covid lockdown, but y'all still got your mail, medications, groceries, and essentials delivered though...
Here's the thing. It IS a service. You're absolutely right. That said, it's a service that continues to be less and less in demand as more and more paperwork is handled online. 90% (or more) of what gets put in MY mailbox goes directly into the trash. It's certainly not a service I want. I'd venture to guess it's not a service that the overwhelming majority of people under the age 50 want. Further, it's a service that directly competes with the private market. Now, I'm not saying get rid of it altogether. I'm saying it needs a massive reform that aligns with the service that the public NEEDS, not what they have added into their service portfolio to justify their size and pensions while driving up the national debt year over year. For what it's worth... 20% of their revenue is to deliver stuff that goes right to a landfill (marketing material). 40% of their revenue is a service that competes directly with the private market carriers (shipping/packages). These are NOT services that the public needs the government to handle.
Folks need to realize that the post office is a public service just like fire departments and we don't expect fire departments to turn a profit. The post office has facilities everywhere but FedEx and UPS don't. If I have to pick up at package at UPS, I have to drive nearly twenty miles to get to the depot. I've never lived more than two miles from a post office. The post office delivers everywhere and delivers on weekends. UPS and FedEx only deliver where they want and weekend deliveries only happen during busy times.
1.post office keeps chasing out the new employees and have to hire more. that is $3000 per employee. 2 upper management keeps giving themselves raises and making up new jobs for those in upper management. 3 they keep breaking the contract and have to pay out double the $$$
What the people who use the post office pay for the post office raise the price of their shipping rates of get rid of your employees. Ups will take the work
UPS hands off a significant portion of its packages to USPS for delivery. They don't want the work, they want the money, and then to overburden USPS at a significantly reduced bulk rate, so it looks like they're the ones to blame. "UPS Mail Innovations" - The "innovation" is that customers pay UPS *more* than they would pay USPS (under the assumption that they're getting better service than USPS), and then UPS pays USPS *less* than customers would pay USPS due to a bulk rate, only to have USPS deliver it anyway. Quite the scam. You see a package with "UPS Mail Innovations" written on it - look below, and you'll see it says "USPS" as well.
At one time when the Postal Service was used by everyone before online billing and etc. came into place the post office was self-sufficient. It is no longer self-sufficient. You can’t compare it with the fire department nor can you compare it with the military police that’s ridiculous. It’s just pouring money into a leaking bucket. The management is terrible, while many of the employees are incompetent, lazy and don’t care. Thats why there’s so many cards and things missing with gift cards in it because they’re also thieves. My grandfather worked for the post office. My dad worked for the post office. My uncle worked for the post office. I worked there six years while in high school in college. I always respected the mail, but I have no respect for the post office any longer. They even cost me $9000 when I paid for next day delivery to two states over and it didn’t get delivered for over a week. It’s time to turn it over to a private sector.
As a Postal retiree could I remind everyone that the Postal Service was never meant to turn a profit. It is a government service that reaches every address Every Day. Let's cut out the layers upon layers of management personnel and let it run as it should. The Workers Work Hard and deserve much more than the fat cats at the top.
@KenArthur-j6b do some research the pension is not that good . If you have never been a carrier you have absolutely no idea what kind of harassment and corrosive environment we work in.
What point it's expensive to operate, go see for yourself what Mail carrier's do for 20$ an hour. Also rand Paul did not make any suggestions on how to operate more efficiently 😢
@goldwinger5434 Nope went in originally, did the form, they checked my id and put it into the system. Meeting with manager twice he said someone on his staff changed the effective date (he doesn't know why) and later on, they deleted it all together. So for a third time, I went online and got the confirmation. Altogether, three meetings at post office, two calls and did the process twice online. I heard others while there having same issues.
Postal workers, salary and benefits have nothing to do with overspending in the post office. 1970s the post office was giving a credit line from the federal government. This money is to be used in the future to improve the post office and keep it on track an up-to-date with future technology. The post office is a non-for-profit organization. Mr. Paul if you want to save money in your federal government, why do you in Kentucky and the rest of the federal government allow your contractors to mark up a $17 stapler + you the federal government have to pay $45 for a stapler? The federal government does not give the post office money. They were given a credit line and they have to pay it back. Just like having a credit line on a mortgage. You spend some you pay it back. You spend some you pay it back. Wake up. The post office is a not-for-profit organization. It is not allowed to have a profit. Any profit goes to the federal treasury
Another problem with the post office. They sold all their real estate well most of their real estate where they outright own the properties. Now they're paying phenomenal rates to rent. That is insane. New employees coming to the post office. Start a salary around $18 an hour plus benefits but they pay a lot of money to have those benefits. You can go work at McDonald's for $15 to $18 an hour and have no benefits and get your hours cut etc. If this is what me and Paul wants is to privatize the post office and hire people to get the mail out everyday and to deliver to millions of Americans everyday. He better think twice the turnover will be phenomenal. People looked forward to having a career at the post office and working their way up the ladder. Not worrying about being laid off and making living wages to survive now this Paul person wants to take that all away and hire people throughout the country. Whatever the state minimum wage is, you are a disgrace. You better read your Constitution about delivering mail. What was promised to the American people?
Republicans and Democrats alike seem to think the USPS should be delivery mail 6 days a week to the entire county - most of us would be happy with every other day and no weekend delivery but politicians won't have it
We track our packages. They show up at our post office and get sent to other states. Then a week or longer they finally show up. This is on a regular basis.
The constant talk about how to fix the postal service drives me crazy to keep seeing these senators grandstand while Dejoy mumbles and stutters his way through hearing after hearing. Reduce management bloat, pay carriers a fair wage, update but keep the current LLV design, and raise postage a reasonable but competitive rate. It’s that simple.
I'm sorry this man doesn't know what he's talking about. The post office is a not-for-profit organization has nothing to do with employees wages. All their money is spent in upper management creating more upper management, creating electric vehicles that we do not need. You cant have all electric vehicles in all 50 states throughout the post office and rely on electricity to charge them everyday. United States Post office was given a credit line by the federal government in the 1970s Biden extended the credit so they can have electric cars to run the post office. He extended the credit to put all employees when they retire to sign up for Medicaid part b. If they want to keep their post office benefits. Again, the post office is a non-for-profit organization. Any leftover money at the end of the year goes to the federal treasury
Well that's what you get when somebody can donate 1 million and buy an appointment like that. You do all remember Dejoy contributed a million dollars to Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and then he was promptly given the postmaster general appointment.
The current postal system is running like shit because Donald Trump appointed a man that contributed 1 million dollars to his 2016 campaign and bought the appointment what does UPS and FedEx have to do with this
I have two packages, one sent and one sent to me, both are now lost. Priority Mail my ass..........................................USPS no help at all.
That's fkn wild that you think that they don't have money to give you change. They aren't a bank, sometimes they gotta go get change lmao. She just ran out and probably only had 100s/20s 🤣🤡
14.60 over and over. Sometimes they run out of 5s. Singles as well. Our pm goes to the bank numerous times a week to try and prevent this. But it still happens sometimes.
Anyone who’s spent even a short amount of time in a US post office is painfully aware of the incompetence of the typical postal worker. Believe me, I live in Memphis and regularly deal with the widespread ineptitude of workers who’d have a hard time getting a private sector job in anything above the level of fast food worker.
@@the_last_ninja9592 Nice way to have a debate. LOL Why is it wrong? Why do you believe the government can handle the post better than a privatized business?
@@alexcameron2880 because a privatized business prioritizes profits over anything else. If the USPS did go private, they would cuts lots of USPS jobs, while lowering the pay. Also, less employees, more work for said employees.
@@alexcameron2880 Trump basically defunded the USPS, and when they started to show signs of failing, republicans calls the USPS incompetent. It's like when some public schools are given less fund, then when those schools start performing bad, people like you say that we need to privatize the education system.
@@alexcameron2880 the problem is the government has too much control over it and there are laws for the post office, that they have to follow. And privatizing is not the solution, because you are going to see a price up and offices getting shut down in the areas USP or FEDEX don't deliver.
No one comes to work. Who processes mail and delivers it ? Humans. But they never come to work and have people getting payed sitting at home. Think I’m lying ? Just ask your mailman. Who many people called in today and who has to carry it.
@Chicagoskyline23 lol. Yeah there are offices with call outs etc, but also you are given sick time for a reason. Vacation for a reason. Or is it taboo to actually use your time...
In 2024, United States Postal SERVICE operating expenses were around $90 billion. Around 90% of that was covered internally through income from things like postage and P.O. Box rentals. Name another government agency or service that almost entirely pays for itself without any subsidizing from taxpayer money...
The USPS is a public SERVICE, not a for-profit company, and hasn't been funded by taxpayer dollars since the '70s. So it's ridiculous when people start talking about how USPS "loses" all this money every year, especially when they start comparing it to companies like UPS and FedEx. Apples and oranges. Nobody talks about other national public services in that light, because nobody is trying to privatize them in order to make themselves rich.
Look at the U.S. Forest Service. They "lose" around $9 Billion per year (fiscal year 2024 budget around $9.32 Billion), but nobody bats an eye or is even talking about it, because nobody's out there trying to privatize it. Hell, the Department of Defense "loses" the better part of a Trillion dollars every year. Maybe we should privatize that? Actually, maybe I shouldn't give the ruling elite any ideas...
Gross mismanagement of USPS has nothing to do with its employees, who, let's not forget, are significantly underpaid compared to established industry standards (UPS, for example). Mail carriers, for instance, have been working without a contract since May 20th of 2023. (568 days as of this comment) Many USPS employees are working 60+ hour weeks, and still having to take second jobs on top of their full-time employment with USPS in order to support their families at this point. That's a pretty hard sell as far as trying to incentivize potential new hires. It's not an easy job, it doesn't pay very well, and it's not very well respected.
USPS is wildly understaffed, which is one of the main reasons why service has declined in recent years. Hiring more people sounds like it would cost a great deal more money, but if they were fully staffed, you would only be paying everyone their standard hourly rate, instead of hemorrhaging the absolutely massive amount of overtime that's being paid out right now, along with all the grievance money from constantly breaking everyone's contracts.
Stop talking about converting to electric vehicles and all this other BS about privatizing in order to line the pockets of some billionaires, and start paying your employees a decent wage. Service will improve, customer satisfaction will increase, and people will actually want to do the job again. (Working for the Post Office used to be such a great job opportunity, it was actually difficult to get in! Now you just need a pulse...) Then educate the public on the fact that the United States Postal Service is exactly that, public service - that almost entirely pays for itself.
By the way, mail carriers never got any kind of hazard pay or anything like that for continuing to deliver during the covid lockdown, but y'all still got your mail, medications, groceries, and essentials delivered though...
I'm convinced that you are the only person in the comment section with any type of grasp on reality...
That’s all how it is.
Here's the thing. It IS a service. You're absolutely right. That said, it's a service that continues to be less and less in demand as more and more paperwork is handled online. 90% (or more) of what gets put in MY mailbox goes directly into the trash. It's certainly not a service I want. I'd venture to guess it's not a service that the overwhelming majority of people under the age 50 want.
Further, it's a service that directly competes with the private market.
Now, I'm not saying get rid of it altogether. I'm saying it needs a massive reform that aligns with the service that the public NEEDS, not what they have added into their service portfolio to justify their size and pensions while driving up the national debt year over year.
For what it's worth...
20% of their revenue is to deliver stuff that goes right to a landfill (marketing material).
40% of their revenue is a service that competes directly with the private market carriers (shipping/packages).
These are NOT services that the public needs the government to handle.
And comments like yours are the problem. 90% of $90B means that the loss is $9B, Rand is correct.
@@yournamehere9553 as a letter carrier thank you. Happy holidays
In that case do we stop funding for the military police department etc they don't make a profit it's a service and a much needed one
Yes 👏
Folks need to realize that the post office is a public service just like fire departments and we don't expect fire departments to turn a profit.
The post office has facilities everywhere but FedEx and UPS don't. If I have to pick up at package at UPS, I have to drive nearly twenty miles to get to the depot. I've never lived more than two miles from a post office. The post office delivers everywhere and delivers on weekends. UPS and FedEx only deliver where they want and weekend deliveries only happen during busy times.
Government employee argues against having government employees
The USPS is a service. Services cost money, they don’t make money.
1.post office keeps chasing out the new employees and have to hire more. that is $3000 per employee. 2 upper management keeps giving themselves raises and making up new jobs for those in upper management. 3 they keep breaking the contract and have to pay out double the $$$
Postal SERVICE. usps is a non profit service. Why isn't anyone asking why the fire department doesn't make money?
Here at the postal service we have a motto…”we are like broken cannons…we don’t work and you can’t fire us.”
Doesnt make scince they have closed numerious offices. Why are they building more?
What the people who use the post office pay for the post office raise the price of their shipping rates of get rid of your employees. Ups will take the work
UPS hands off a significant portion of its packages to USPS for delivery. They don't want the work, they want the money, and then to overburden USPS at a significantly reduced bulk rate, so it looks like they're the ones to blame.
"UPS Mail Innovations" - The "innovation" is that customers pay UPS *more* than they would pay USPS (under the assumption that they're getting better service than USPS), and then UPS pays USPS *less* than customers would pay USPS due to a bulk rate, only to have USPS deliver it anyway. Quite the scam. You see a package with "UPS Mail Innovations" written on it - look below, and you'll see it says "USPS" as well.
At one time when the Postal Service was used by everyone before online billing and etc. came into place the post office was self-sufficient. It is no longer self-sufficient. You can’t compare it with the fire department nor can you compare it with the military police that’s ridiculous. It’s just pouring money into a leaking bucket. The management is terrible, while many of the employees are incompetent, lazy and don’t care. Thats why there’s so many cards and things missing with gift cards in it because they’re also thieves. My grandfather worked for the post office. My dad worked for the post office. My uncle worked for the post office. I worked there six years while in high school in college. I always respected the mail, but I have no respect for the post office any longer. They even cost me $9000 when I paid for next day delivery to two states over and it didn’t get delivered for over a week. It’s time to turn it over to a private sector.
As a Postal retiree could I remind everyone that the Postal Service was never meant to turn a profit. It is a government service that reaches every address Every Day. Let's cut out the layers upon layers of management personnel and let it run as it should. The Workers Work Hard and deserve much more than the fat cats at the top.
Rand paul does great work for usa and will support you
UISPS needs to be privatized. The only way the government can make money, is to print it! Get out of the mail delivery game, PRIVATIZE!!!
The post office, the United States postal service is a not-for-profit organization. Any leftover money goes to the federal treasury
Simple fix. END ridiculous Pension. Other companies have done this. USPS has no balls
There pension is the same as any other federal job.
@ not true
@KenArthur-j6b do some research the pension is not that good . If you have never been a carrier you have absolutely no idea what kind of harassment and corrosive environment we work in.
Senator Rand Paul is 💯% on point
How are they using so much money?
@eilenekellogg-ki2br that would need to be determined with an audit
What point it's expensive to operate, go see for yourself what Mail carrier's do for 20$ an hour. Also rand Paul did not make any suggestions on how to operate more efficiently 😢
Working with local post office... Change of address - unprecedented incompetence even working with manager.
Maybe the fault's on your end. I've changed address many times and all I did was fill out a form and mail it in.
@goldwinger5434 Nope went in originally, did the form, they checked my id and put it into the system. Meeting with manager twice he said someone on his staff changed the effective date (he doesn't know why) and later on, they deleted it all together. So for a third time, I went online and got the confirmation. Altogether, three meetings at post office, two calls and did the process twice online. I heard others while there having same issues.
Postal workers, salary and benefits have nothing to do with overspending in the post office. 1970s the post office was giving a credit line from the federal government. This money is to be used in the future to improve the post office and keep it on track an up-to-date with future technology. The post office is a non-for-profit organization. Mr. Paul if you want to save money in your federal government, why do you in Kentucky and the rest of the federal government allow your contractors to mark up a $17 stapler + you the federal government have to pay $45 for a stapler? The federal government does not give the post office money. They were given a credit line and they have to pay it back. Just like having a credit line on a mortgage. You spend some you pay it back. You spend some you pay it back. Wake up. The post office is a not-for-profit organization. It is not allowed to have a profit. Any profit goes to the federal treasury
Another problem with the post office. They sold all their real estate well most of their real estate where they outright own the properties. Now they're paying phenomenal rates to rent. That is insane. New employees coming to the post office. Start a salary around $18 an hour plus benefits but they pay a lot of money to have those benefits. You can go work at McDonald's for $15 to $18 an hour and have no benefits and get your hours cut etc. If this is what me and Paul wants is to privatize the post office and hire people to get the mail out everyday and to deliver to millions of Americans everyday. He better think twice the turnover will be phenomenal. People looked forward to having a career at the post office and working their way up the ladder. Not worrying about being laid off and making living wages to survive now this Paul person wants to take that all away and hire people throughout the country. Whatever the state minimum wage is, you are a disgrace. You better read your Constitution about delivering mail. What was promised to the American people?
Republicans and Democrats alike seem to think the USPS should be delivery mail 6 days a week to the entire county - most of us would be happy with every other day and no weekend delivery but politicians won't have it
We track our packages. They show up at our post office and get sent to other states. Then a week or longer they finally show up. This is on a regular basis.
Good luck
The constant talk about how to fix the postal service drives me crazy to keep seeing these senators grandstand while Dejoy mumbles and stutters his way through hearing after hearing.
Reduce management bloat, pay carriers a fair wage, update but keep the current LLV design, and raise postage a reasonable but competitive rate. It’s that simple.
Stop all travel budgets...and stop building of all new buildings until you can create a facilities plan...
Give the money or close them they can't do the job
Why give money? Let them sink or swim.
Who is the woman sitting behind Rand Paul?
Reduce the delivery schedule to 5 days per week and eliminate private package delivery! Stop trying to compete with private delivery companies.
Better yet lease the entire organization to a private company.
Facts
You really don't want that.
Every where
Make stamp prices great again.
I'm sorry this man doesn't know what he's talking about. The post office is a not-for-profit organization has nothing to do with employees wages. All their money is spent in upper management creating more upper management, creating electric vehicles that we do not need. You cant have all electric vehicles in all 50 states throughout the post office and rely on electricity to charge them everyday. United States Post office was given a credit line by the federal government in the 1970s Biden extended the credit so they can have electric cars to run the post office. He extended the credit to put all employees when they retire to sign up for Medicaid part b. If they want to keep their post office benefits. Again, the post office is a non-for-profit organization. Any leftover money at the end of the year goes to the federal treasury
Ramp Paul is a Joe Osteen of his seat, only profit, right?
Well that's what you get when somebody can donate 1 million and buy an appointment like that. You do all remember Dejoy contributed a million dollars to Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and then he was promptly given the postmaster general appointment.
Don't forget to investigate UPS and FedEx
What are you talking about?
Huh?
The current postal system is running like shit because Donald Trump appointed a man that contributed 1 million dollars to his 2016 campaign and bought the appointment what does UPS and FedEx have to do with this
And it is ridiculously hard to remove a postmaster general this is fucked up
Why? You don't like private companies, comrade?
Happy 4 internet never had it so fun
Senator Paul, thank you for your service.
Paul always talks logic! Rare in Washington!
Absolutely!
wake up, gooberhead..the usps has not made money Any Year for decades..whats new?
They need a new MAGA CEO.
Funny. Who do you think appointed the current PMG?
Privatize the USPS. Postal service is more messed up than the VA.
Dejoy was appointed by Donald Trump after he made a 1 million dollar campaign donation for his 2016 election that's who's responsible.
It's past time to privatize USPS service.
Fed Ex and UPS exist because the postal service sucks.
Privatize the Postal Service. End of story.
I have two packages, one sent and one sent to me, both are now lost. Priority Mail my ass..........................................USPS no help at all.
this story is repeated over and over and over and over again every day. USPS is a total disaster because of the union.
Went to post office to ship a package the person behind the counter couldn’t make change on my 20 dollar bill
That's fkn wild that you think that they don't have money to give you change.
They aren't a bank, sometimes they gotta go get change lmao. She just ran out and probably only had 100s/20s 🤣🤡
14.60 over and over. Sometimes they run out of 5s. Singles as well. Our pm goes to the bank numerous times a week to try and prevent this. But it still happens sometimes.
Anyone who’s spent even a short amount of time in a US post office is painfully aware of the incompetence of the typical postal worker. Believe me, I live in Memphis and regularly deal with the widespread ineptitude of workers who’d have a hard time getting a private sector job in anything above the level of fast food worker.
The workers want a 4 hour break rather than their normal 3.
They get 50 minutes total of break time. That's what's in their contract
@thezabc ok
30 of that is a non paid lunch. Which is explained in that contract
where do you get your info?
@KaramjitSingh-qh9hs on Seinfeld
they shouldn't have gotten a dime 10 years ago, 9 years ago or any since, we don't need the post office.......bye
Get rid out it completely. Let UPS, FedEx and other private companies do it all.
How much do you think your UPS/FedEx will cost without USPS as a price control? I promise you won't like it.
Time to privatize the post.
wrong
@@the_last_ninja9592 Nice way to have a debate. LOL Why is it wrong? Why do you believe the government can handle the post better than a privatized business?
@@alexcameron2880 because a privatized business prioritizes profits over anything else. If the USPS did go private, they would cuts lots of USPS jobs, while lowering the pay. Also, less employees, more work for said employees.
@@alexcameron2880 Trump basically defunded the USPS, and when they started to show signs of failing, republicans calls the USPS incompetent. It's like when some public schools are given less fund, then when those schools start performing bad, people like you say that we need to privatize the education system.
@@alexcameron2880 the problem is the government has too much control over it and there are laws for the post office, that they have to follow. And privatizing is not the solution, because you are going to see a price up and offices getting shut down in the areas USP or FEDEX don't deliver.
Rand Paul Tees Off On The USPS's Poor Financial Performance
For .73 cents per stamp their performance should be stellar, not sub par.
No one comes to work. Who processes mail and delivers it ? Humans. But they never come to work and have people getting payed sitting at home. Think I’m lying ? Just ask your mailman. Who many people called in today and who has to carry it.
Lol. You realize you are expecting stellar performance because you paid 73 cents to ship a letter across the country.
@Chicagoskyline23 lol. Yeah there are offices with call outs etc, but also you are given sick time for a reason. Vacation for a reason. Or is it taboo to actually use your time...