Posted on 09/07/2011 3:53:24 AM PDT by tobyhill
The Obama administration said on Tuesday that it would seek to save the deficit-plagued Postal Service from an embarrassing default by proposing to give it an extra three months to make a $5.5 billion payment due on Sept. 30 to finance retirees’ future health coverage.
Speaking at a Senate hearing, John Berry, director of the federal Office of Personnel Management, also said the administration would soon put forward a plan to stabilize the postal service, which faces a deficit of nearly $10 billion this fiscal year and had warned that it could run out of money entirely this winter.
“We must act quickly to prevent a Postal Service collapse,” said Senator Joseph Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, who is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which held the Tuesday hearing on the Postal Service’s financial crisis.
Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe testified that even with a three-month reprieve on the $5.5 billion payment, the post office was likely to run out of cash and face a shutdown next July or August unless Congress passed legislation that provided a long-term solution for the ailing agency.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Close it down, simple solution.
I think he’s trying to stave off a bankruptcy that would hurt his union buddies.
If you read the ideas from the USPS board...to cut staff, and change the pension and health benefits..they’re long overdue, but what’s really surprising is that I believe the majority of the board was appointed by Obama...
ENOUGH!!!!!! Pensions are NOT SUSTAINABLE...ANYWHERE!!!
Al Gore’s fault.
“Any way we can make it independent enough to send it through bankruptcy?”
That’s already being considered. BK will void the union contracts giving USPS more flexibility. But BK won’t touch pension over-funding, mandatory six day delivery, and small office closure issues. The USPS will want a solution that gives them the ability to address these issues as well. Currently they are constrained by rules that they have no power over. It can’t be run in a businesslike manner when operational decisions are imposed upon it from the outside.
Ping
Pensions aren’t the problem at USPS. If anything it’s the reverse at USPS, they have been required to fund future retirement health care costs at a rate far beyond anything that private business does.
My utility company (Ameren Illinois) will not get on board with electronic billing, the only bill I have that can’t be paid that way. I believe the reason is that they don’t want to pay the fees involved with debit and credit cards and they can’t simply raise rates at will, they have to get permission for every rate increase from a state agency.
So every month I get my bill from them in the U.S. mail and have to use the U.S. mail to send them a paper check and wait about two to three weeks for them to cash it and clear my bank account.
Just remembered, my water bill is the same way, mail a check or pay cash in person, cash is my usual route with them, always getting a receipt.
Today will be one of the few times I will actively be sending something via USPS.
I'm sending Mr. Hoffa a tea bag and a letter expressing my displeasure at his performance in detroit on Labor Day.
Not that hoffa will care, but maybe some mafia guy will get short changed by young jimmy and he'll end up in a NJ parking lot with the old man.
We don’t really receive anything useful in USPS at our house either...just the occasional birthday card. All but a couple of our bills are delivered electronically. The rest of the mail is junk, which I could do without. I get plenty of junk electronically already!
Let me guess - he has a plan but it will cost $300 billion...
let them re-organize under a bankruptcy judge - without the union!!
that is the only option - no more bailouts!!!
Hah! Nothing that members of Congress rely on to communicate with their constituents has a snowball's chance of being closed down.
All congress has to do is allow them to deliver 5 days instead of 6. The postal service has been asking Congress to let them do this for years. Why won’t the government allow this simple change that will allow the Usps to continue on. Also Congress will not allow the Post Office to offer to sell more goods or services or close more dead weight offices. They prefer Hoffa’s teamster pals at UPS.
Bump to reiterate:
Obama prefers Hoffa’s Teamsters at UPS
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