Newspaper delays are just one consequence of cost cuts and changes to a fraying 250-year-old system.

The delays are grounded in USPS’s continuing quest to break even. In 2021, Trump-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy rolled out the 10-year Delivering for America plan, which was supposed to help USPS break even by 2023. Instead, it has continued to lose billions of dollars annually, even as double-digit rate increases have “driven all kinds of mail volume out of the system,” Paxton said. He called it “an absolute disaster.”