Posted on 02/07/2011 3:22:20 PM PST by SmithL
The Postal Service lost $8.5 billion last year. Management is trying desperately to close post offices, consolidate operations and end Saturday delivery, but is meeting stiff bipartisan congressional resistance.
Nobody wants to see the mail die, but the fact is, it is in a death spiral as we speak. At some point all of us are going to have to decide how much money to borrow from the Chinese to keep it alive.
Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, wrote a letter to postal managers today warning about plans to scale back a mail processing facility in Stockton and transfer the work to Sacramento. Such congressional interventions are typical of postal operations, which are uniquely conducted by an independent agency overseen by Congress and written into the U.S. Constitution.
"I appreciate that USPS is working diligently to consider cost-saving measures that can allow a return to financial health while preserving mail delivery services, an important undertaking," McNerney said. "However, I . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
“Nobody wants to see the mail die”
The USPS will never die, regardless of how scarce, pointless and irrelevant paper mail becomes; it’s the nature of government.
Used to be the other way around.
Here's the deal ~ there's an agreement among ALL US Senators to not mess with any personnel situation in USPS that involves fewer than something like 500 employees.
That's why you have a Representative doing the letter writing.
I suspect some smart guy at USPS headquarters is working up Bedbug Letter #19 to send back to this guy ~ and his constituents.
Normally, I would not be inclined to defend the postal service, but I just recently read an article that said the USPS had been overcharged by the Civil Service Retirement System for that last ten years. The total amount of that overcharge was $75+billion. I don't know how that would affect the bottom line, but it would have to do something.
http://www.uspsoig.gov/stories/CSRS--Full%20web%20story.pdf
While the USPS may be a Constitutional function, the government needs to end it. It is just a money losing jobs program.
One of the few government agencies I voluntarily interact with. Figures.
The only way to make this profitable is to cut 500,000 USPS jobs leaving one in DC and 5 postman scrambling around the country to make deliveries.
I don’t even need the postal service. They fill my box with 2 pounds worth of junk every week. (I do get my Rifleman and Decisions magazines once a month though).
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