“..........The Post Office is a funny beast. It operates without tax money [unlike GM or AMTRAK, for example] but still is subject to Congressional meddling......”
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Yes, Congress wanted to make it largely a self-funded organization but constantly refuse to allow it to make all the adjustments that are appropriate in its current business situation. The USPS should be allowed to close offices where that is called for and limit 6 day delivery where that is appropriate. Let it compete—if it goes bankrupt, it goes bankrupt and reorganized under bankruptcy laws.
Yeah, for example, Congress has forever prohibited the shipment of alcohol via the Postal Service. That leaves the increasingly lucrative mail-order wine business to UPS and FedEx. Several years ago, Congress forbade the shipment of cigarettes through the mail -- it was for the children, of course, who had evidently stolen their parents' credit cards and arranged for the evil weed to be delivered when only the kids were home.
That decision cost the little Post Office I work at [a mile or so away from the Seneca Nation] to lose half its annual revenue. It's now slated to be cut to four hours a day.
The Post Office causes enough trouble for itself without the Congress-critters' meddling.