Before the Depression and World War 2, the only interaction most Americans had with the federal government was when they went to the post office. It's one of the oldest federal institutions, having been there since the founding, and it's one federal agency that, unlike so many others, is specifically authorized in the Constitution; Article I, Section 8, Clause 7, gives Congress the power to "...establish Post Offices and post Roads."

That doesn't mean the Postal Service is immune from being expected to operate efficiently or that its operations couldn't use some modernization and improvement. Now we can chalk up another win for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The United States Postal Service will be working with the DOGE to cut billions from their budget.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy plans to cut 10,000 workers and billions of dollars from the U.S. Postal Service budget and he'll do that working with Elon Musk 's Department of Government Efficiency, according to a letter sent to members of Congress on Thursday.

DOGE will assist USPS with addressing "big problems" at the $78 billion-a-year agency, which has sometimes struggled in recent years to stay afloat. The agreement also includes the General Services Administration in an effort to help the Postal Service identify and achieve "further efficiencies."

USPS listed such issues as mismanagement of the agency's retirement assets and Workers' Compensation Program, as well as an array of regulatory requirements that the letter described as "restricting normal business practice."

The Postal Service has been struggling in recent years. The package delivery services have cost the USPS revenue, with people increasingly using FedEx, UPS, and similar companies for fast parcel delivery. Also, much first class mail has been replaced by electronic means - remember when people used to write letters?

And, while we cannot easily predict what the DOGE and the USPS may find in auditing their operations, an organization that is nearly 250 years old is likely going to have some procedures and operations that don't make sense anymore, or at least, that could be improved.

Of course, there will be a backlash from the usual sources.

Critics of the agreement fear negative effects of the cuts will be felt across America. Democratic U.S. Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia, who was sent the letter, said turning over the Postal Service to DOGE would result in it being undermined and privatized.

"This capitulation will have catastrophic consequences for all Americans - especially those in rural and hard to reach areas - who rely on the Postal Service every day to deliver mail, medications, ballots, and more," he said in a statement.

Prediction: No, it won't. Rep. Connolly is scaremongering. There is literally nothing in the statement from the USPS that would have any such impacts. And, we should note, as Rep. Connolly evidently has not, that this is not the first time the USPS has gone through such a catharsis.

The agency previously announced plans to cut its operating costs by more than $3.5 billion annually. And this isn't the first time thousands of employees have been cut. In 2021, the agency cut 30,000 workers.

The American people managed to survive that, and they will survive this.

See Related: USPS Suspends Packages From China, Hong Kong...Then Does an About-Face

DOGE Lawmakers Want to Recoup the Money from Biden's Post Office EV Boondoggle

The Postal Service, which has been technically an independent entity since 1970, has faced calls to be privatized in the past, but a top-to-bottom audit may increase the Postal Service's efficiency to the point where those calls will be quieted. The USPS is, as noted, actually authorized by the Constitution; we can make it more efficient, and we can cut out a lot of the fat, as has happened before. And, yes, it's another win for the DOGE - and for the Trump administration.