Several House Republicans who played a critical role in passing the Postal Service Reform Act said they were skeptical of providing further assistance to USPS.

And with Amazon about to cut back dramatically on their “last mile” contract, which is said to be worth $6 billion in revenue…

It’s always been contentious, but the only options are more revenue (higher prices) or lower costs (close offices, reduce hours, slow down service) or some combination thereof. But everybody wants lower cost at some other post office, not their own, and Congresscritters always object when the cuts are in their districts.

You can’t raise junk mail prices too much or that trade will go to other media. You can’t raise premium rates for overnight, etc or it will go to private carriers. Raising 1st class rates and similar won‘t really get you there, and there will be lots of vocal “ouch”.

My idea is to reduce service: Business on Monday-Wednesday-Friday, Residential on Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday. You get to whack half the delivery costs: drivers, gas, vehicles, etc. That would also engender a lot of switching I suppose, but the cost savings would be huge. Could higher cost private carriers take share from such a low cost service? Dunno. Just a thought.