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This viral tweet tries to compare sending a package to sending a letter. The cost to send a letter via first class mail is $.55, not $.50. But the cost to send a package with the USPS via priority mail starts at $7.50. It’s simply wrong to conflate the two...
It’s true FedEx can’t compete with the $.55 to send a letter, because they are prohibited from doing so! It’s illegal for any company to send a letter, or send anything to your mailbox. The Post Office has a legal monopoly on these services.
The only exceptions are package delivery (which UPS started first, so the Post Office couldn’t claim the monopoly) and certain express deliveries. When FedEx began, it stamped “Extremely Urgent Material” on its packets because that wording bypassed the letter prohibition.
The Post Office always enjoyed monopoly privileges, although in the early to mid 1800s entrepreneurs took advantage of loopholes and lax enforcement to compete with the Post Office. By 1845, an estimated 1/3 of letters were delivered by private firms.
It was the private sector which began offering cheaper service and endangered the Post Office’s existence. Members of Congress at the time admitted the Post Office had no chance to compete with private entities.
Lysander Spooner, who’s American Letter Mail Company offered drastically lower rates in 1844, was arrested and shut down when the feds reasserted the postal monopoly in 1845. Their efforts forced the USPS to lower their mail rates at the time, but no one could compete again.
The Post Office also gets special treatment afforded to no other company. They’re exempt from all sales, income and property taxes. From parking tickets, vehicle registration fees and other charges. They’re also not bound by zoning laws and have the power of eminent domain.
The main justification for the USPS has been that rural areas shouldn’t have to pay more for delivery. Why not? Living in rural areas has benefits and drawbacks. The cost of living is generally much lower, but the trade off is that one might live far from stores or other services
It’s not unreasonable that an extra charge for mail delivery be one aspect of living in a rural area.

Sources:
usps.com/ship/mail-ship…
about.usps.com/manuals/spp/ht…
jstor.org/stable/725246?…
fee.org/articles/an-ex…
fee.org/articles/lysan…
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The Meme Policeman
@PolicemanMeme
The breakdown:
@KLoeffler didn’t personally make these trades. She has a blind trust, a 3rd party is solely responsible for managing her accounts and making trades. She wasn’t aware of the trades until after they were made. Violating this would be illegal and require evidence to
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The Meme Policeman
@PolicemanMeme
This viral tweet starts out with correct information about the Kennedy Center, but ends with a false claim about it donating $5M to the DNC. There is no evidence of this claim, nor any examples of the Kennedy Center making political donations in their past tax statements.
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The right sometimes makes the same mistake with Planned Parenthood (as the following tweet shows). When you hear of PP donating millions to political causes, it’s from Super PACs affiliated with them, like Planned Parenthood Votes.
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