With all the confusion in the news media about the U.S. Postal Service's financial problems, finally one writer nails it on the head.
In Next Washington Debacle: The Broke Postal Service at Seeking Alpha, usnews.com columnist Rick Newman succinctly summarizes "how Congress has made the mail service a national embarrassment":
1) Hamstringing its finances: "The postal service faces unusual limits on its ability to manage costs, such as an obligation imposed by a 2006 law to 'prefund' a large portion of its retiree healthcare plan, instead of a more typical pay-as-you-go arrangement." Newman doesn't mention that the prefunding is an accounting trick used to understate the size of the federal budget deficit.
2) Making it obsolete: "Congress has ... micromanaged the postal service through a strict set of rules governing what it can and can't do while fulfilling its mandate of universal mail service."
3) Waiting until disaster is near: "The USPS has been seeking sounder finances and greater independence for several years, yet Congress has sat on its hands to the point that default seems likely and insolvency is even possible."
Newman concludes that postal reform "won't happen unless Congress relinquishes its own prerogative to interfere. Don't stand by the mailbox waiting for deliverance."
Other recent articles about the Postal Service's financial problems and cost-cutting efforts:
Congress could screw up a 1 car funeral
ReplyDeleteMail Volume is down. Reduce The 11 Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service.
ReplyDeletethey need to revise their marketing campaign to Buy American, use the United states Postal service. If every company switched a small percentage of their current shipping to the usps there would not be a problem. Of course I prefer the service from UPS but.......
ReplyDeleteFor a deeper discussion of this, go to this link - http://politicalirony.com/2011/09/15/the-war-on-the-postal-service/
ReplyDeleteVery informative.
Congress is killing the postal service with the mandated 5 Billion yearly prefund payment. USPS is the second largest employer in the USA. When hundreds of thousands of Postal workers are unemployed and can't pay taxes, how will Congress be funded, oh yea their rich cronies that they helped get rich over the last decade plus. Good Luck with that!!!!
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