USPS Reform or Destruction? Musk’s DOGE Team Pressures Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS) is in real trouble. With billions in losses, fewer people sending letters, and pressure from a new cost-cutting team led by Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the way Americans get their mail is about to change.
This isn’t just about politics or money — this is your mail. Your prescriptions. Your checks. Your packages. Your connection to the outside world, especially if you live in a small town or rural area.
USPS Is Bleeding Money While Still Serving Everyone
Last year, the USPS lost $9.5 billion. Americans send fewer personal letters than ever, but USPS is still required to deliver to every address — even the ones no private company wants to touch. Remote towns in Alaska still get their mail by float plane. Tribal communities in Arizona rely on mules to bring theirs down into the Grand Canyon.
While private delivery companies like FedEx and UPS can skip expensive routes or charge more, USPS has to show up everywhere, six days a week. And each year, the number of delivery points grows.
So, while the volume of mail is dropping, the cost to deliver it keeps going up.
Elon Musk’s DOGE Is Digging Into USPS
Now Musk’s DOGE team has its hands on USPS. Their goal? Cut costs — fast.
Changes already in motion include phasing out 10,000 jobs through early retirements, slowing delivery times (especially in rural areas), and replacing aging trucks with electric ones. But that’s just the start.
Some people are pushing for even more extreme ideas — like shutting down local post offices or fully privatizing the service. That would mean rural communities could be left behind, and prices for basic mail service could skyrocket.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who recently stepped down, blamed Congress for blocking progress.
The simplest and most obvious ideas and solutions receive illogical and irrational scrutiny from those that have no responsibility for ensuring the financial viability of the Postal Service,” DeJoy wrote in his resignation letter.
Even before DOGE got involved, DeJoy was trying to overhaul USPS under a plan called “Delivering for America.” But constant roadblocks, including from lawmakers who don’t want to upset voters back home by closing a local post office or removing door-to-door delivery, made progress difficult.
USPS Was Built to Serve, Not Profit
The USPS has been around longer than the country itself — since 1775. It was built to connect people and communities, and to make sure every American had access to communication.
At one time, it even delivered newspapers for free, because leaders believed a well-informed public was necessary for democracy.
Congress said it clearly when it created the modern USPS:
The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together…
That mission hasn’t changed, even if the world around it has.
Workers and Citizens Push Back
Unionized postal workers are fighting hard against more cuts. They’ve staged protests across the country in response to the idea that DOGE could bring even deeper slashes.
Mark Dimondstein, president of the postal workers’ union, put it bluntly:
“…any attack on the Postal Service is part of the ongoing oligarchs’ coup against the vital public services our members and other public servants provide the country. We know that privatized postal services will lead to higher postage prices, and lower service quality to the public.”
And he’s not alone. People still value the USPS — even if they don’t send as much mail as before. In one part of Wisconsin, a 100-year-old tradition still exists: “mail jumpers” leap from a moving boat to hand-deliver mail to homes with no road access.
“Because it has been such a long tradition, it’s something people are attached to and really, really value,” said Ellen Dare Burling, who manages that mail route by water.
Even she admits she doesn’t send checks in the mail anymore. But the emotional connection? It’s still strong.
Don’t Wait Until It’s Gone
The USPS doesn’t make a profit, and it wasn’t designed to. That’s not a flaw — that’s the point.
If we let it be carved up and sold off, it won’t be easy to get back. And once it’s gone, you’ll notice.
Not just when your packages arrive late, but when entire communities lose a service they rely on.
This isn’t just a delivery problem. It’s a warning.
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