The United States Postal Service is in trouble. Not "struggling a little" trouble. We're talking $9 billion in losses last year alone, $109 billion in total losses since 2007, and a postmaster general headed to Congress today to ask for billions more just to keep the lights on in 2027.

And somehow, nobody in Washington seems ready to have the real conversation about what comes next.

The Numbers Are Bad

First-class mail volume has dropped 80% since the late 1990s. The peak of overall mail volume was 213 billion pieces delivered in 2006. By 2024 that number had fallen to around 112 billion. People just aren't mailing letters anymore — and the entire financial model the Postal Service was built on depended on them doing exactly that.

The problem is the USPS doesn't get to pick and choose like UPS or FedEx. It's legally required to deliver to every single address in the country, six days a week, at the same rate regardless of whether you live in Manhattan or a rural Montana town with one road in. No taxpayer subsidies to offset that. Just the revenue it generates — which is shrinking.

A first-class stamp now costs 78 cents, up from 55 cents in 2021. Businesses that rely on mass mailings are paying 41% more for a service that's also gotten slower. That's not a great sales pitch.

New Leadership, Same Mountain to Climb

Postmaster General David Steiner — a former FedEx board member — took over last July and inherited quite the situation. Unionized postal workers weren't thrilled about his appointment given his private-sector background, and the financial mess he walked into hasn't gotten any easier.

Steiner has been straight about where things stand. The Postal Service may run out of money next year without borrowing authority. He's exploring new revenue ideas — helping Americans process Amazon returns, opening up delivery contracts to smaller businesses — but there's no magic fix on the horizon.

"We cannot cost-cut our way to prosperity," Steiner told the governing board last month.

He's right. But growing your way out of a structural decline isn't simple either.

The Political Mess On Top of Everything Else

As if the financial picture wasn't complicated enough, the Postal Service is now tangled up in the ongoing fight over mail-in voting.

Trump has repeatedly attacked mail ballots, claiming they are linked to "MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD" — a claim that has never been backed by evidence. About 48 million Americans voted by mail in the last presidential election. That's not a fringe practice. It's how nearly a third of the country votes.

In January, the Postal Service quietly changed how it postmarks mail ballots. Previously, a ballot mailed on Election Day would get an immediate postmark and typically be counted even if it arrived a few days later. Under the new system, postmarking could be delayed by several days — meaning ballots mailed on Election Day might not be counted at all. The USPS now recommends mailing ballots back at least a week before the deadline.

Election officials are frustrated. Voting rights groups are alarmed. And experts say Trump's continued attacks on mail voting — true or not — are eroding public confidence in the Postal Service itself, an institution that 72% of Americans viewed favorably as recently as 2024.

"When the president of the United States talks about it this way, some people will question whether they can trust the Postal Service," said Tammy Patrick of the National Association of Election Officials.

Privatization Is Still on the Table

Trump has floated privatizing the Postal Service or merging it with another federal agency. Unions are fighting that hard, arguing it would gut service for rural communities and elderly Americans who depend on mail delivery for prescriptions and essential correspondence.

"Such a move would raise prices, lead to service cuts, and threaten the very concept of mail and package services at one affordable price for everyone regardless of where they live," the American Postal Workers Union said.

They're not wrong that rural America would feel it most. The whole point of a universal service obligation is that profitability doesn't determine who gets mail. The moment that changes, plenty of zip codes lose out.

The Bottom Line

Congress is holding an oversight hearing today, and Steiner is expected to ask for borrowing authority to survive into 2027. What he'll get is anyone's guess.

The hard truth is that the Postal Service needs a reinvention, not just a bailout. The world changed. Letter volume isn't coming back. The question is whether Washington can set aside politics long enough to figure out what the Post Office should actually look like in 2026 — before the bill comes due and nobody has a plan.

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