The Ultra-Wealthy Are Already Freeloading!

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Louis DeJoy, a Republican mega-donor with a net worth somewhere in the neighborhood of nine-figures - but shy of the current GOP benchmark of being worth a billion dollars or more to be a top government appointee - was appointed leader of the US Postal Service by Donald Trump during his first administration.  DeJoy, who came to government service from the private sector, quickly earned the enmity of many postal service employees and much of the public sector with his cost-cutting activities which resulted in slower and curtailed service from the USPS, a government service seen by many as the bond that holds the country together. 

Joe Biden, during his 2020 presidential campaign against Trump, made political noises about firing Louis DeJoy, but once Biden was elected he apparently removed that item from his "to do" list and was supportive, or at least tolerant, of DeJoy's aggressive business style.

There was political chatter at the time of DeJoy's appointment to head the Postal Service, that he was there to cripple the agency in an effort to get it under private control, and that may have well been the case, but somewhere along the way he seems to have developed a sincere interest in helping the over-burdened and under-funded agency succeed.

Enter Elon Musk and his co-conspirators in DOGE at the beginning of the second Trump administration, and attention once again turned to crippling the US Postal Service with the obvious intent of eventual privatization.   DeJoy apparently agreed to an initial DOGE mandate for his agency to cut 10,000 jobs, but he roared in protest when Elon and his boys wanted access to highly confidential information on his agency's computer system.  DeJoy had already announced his intention to resign as soon as the USPS Board of Governors found a suitable replacement for him, but this past Monday he adjusted that timeline and said that he would resign at the end of the day.

What Joe Biden either couldn't or wouldn't address, Donald Trump managed to accomplish in just over two months.  He got rid of one of his own employees in a move that appears intended to hamstring an important government service to the American people.

Folks, Elon and Trump and their boys have already been swinging hard at Social Security by slashing the employee rolls, closing offices, and making communication with the agency much harder - if not completely impossible.  The end game is to make certain that Social Security is unable to function effectively so that our overlords can rush in with a privatization plan to "save" the program.    The same is true of cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, the end game of which is to force participants into "advantage" programs - which would result in benefits being approved and administered through private insurance companies.  For those who think dealing with Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is too hard as it is, pick up the phone and just try getting a human being at United Health Care (or any other major insurer) on the line.  I double-dog dare you!

Now, just as it looks as though we are going to be needing the US Postal Service even more, it, too, will be headed for the auction block. And plans for increased rural access to internet also seem to be evaporating.

Education, too, is being rapidly privatized through the funneling of public tax dollars to private and religious schools, with an end game being the collapse of "free" public education.  Soon, very soon, securing a basic elementary and secondary education for your child will be like going to the store for groceries.  Shoppers will be strictly limited by what they can afford - and - to frost that cake - they (we) will go right on paying taxes anyway!

We have a government that is rapidly disengaging from its role in providing basic human services to the population.   The attitude emanating from On High seems to be that if a service does not directly benefit billionaires, it is a waste of the money that working people send them through taxes.

Shame on the Grand Old Party for turning its back on the people whose blood, sweat, and tears built this once-great nation.  That rumble in the distance is the sound of collapse, and the GOP owns it!

No tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy!  They are already freeloading as it is!