7 Reasons the GOP Might Be Starving USPS of Cash

Congressional Republicans seem intent on letting the U.S. Postal Service run out of cash, but even the pundits can't figure out exactly why.

The GOP-controlled House left for summer recess last week after failing to vote on two postal-reform bills that have been languishing for months -- a bipartisan Senate measure and a more conservative alternative developed by a Republican-controlled House committee. Republican leaders in the House refused to say why they have failed to bring either bill up for votes, but here are a few of the choicest theories:

• Fear: House Speaker John Boehner is perhaps "afraid voters would blame his members for the closing of underused post offices," wrote Gail Collins, an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. "There is nothing Congress cares more about than post offices, 38 of which the House has passed bills to rename over the past 18 months."
• Avoiding embarrassment: "Most likely, there's not enough support in the House to pass any bill, so holding a vote would be an embarrassing setback for the GOP leadership," speculates Rick Newman of U.S. News & World Report.
• Let's get closer to the cliff before we hit the brakes: Citing Republican sources, Bernie Becker of The Hill provided this amazing, and truly disgusting, reason: "Lawmakers don't know exactly when the Postal Service might hit a doomsday date when they wouldn't be able to deliver the mail.” Some Congressmen have criticized USPS for not stating exactly when it will go belly up, he wrote. They want to know whether a real crisis can be avoided in the next few months, which "could give the House even less incentive to bring the bill to the floor before their members face voters in November." 

Soft Market, Digital Investments Drag Time Inc. Down

Time Inc.'s magazines are facing such "soft market conditions" that their estimated value may decline significantly this year, the company revealed in a financial statement yesterday.

The country's largest magazine publisher began 2012 with an estimated fair market value 19% higher than its book value, parent Time Warner stated in its quarterly 10-Q financial report.

"During 2012, the Publishing segment has experienced soft market conditions that have negatively impacted its operating results. If those market conditions worsen, it is possible that the book values of the Time Inc. reporting unit and certain of its tradenames will exceed their respective fair values, which may result in the Company recognizing a noncash impairment that could be material."

Decreased sales of both ad pages and newsstand copies dragged the publishing unit's first-half operating income down 60% from last year.

Newsweek Takes a Stand: Profits Are for Wimps

Mitt Romney suffers from The Wimp Factor, Newsweek’s oh-so-hip cover helpfully informs us philistines this week.

Of course: Romney started a company that is still profitable. Real men lose millions of dollars a year without any hint of a sustainable business model.

I’m no fan of Mitt Romney or the Republican Party, but I’m even less a fan of amateur psychoanalysis masquerading as journalism. To call the cover story “biased reporting” would be an insult to reporting. It’s all bias and no reporting -- and an insult to Newsweek’s heritage of great political reportage and investigative journalism.

And you thought only amateur bloggers could string together unrelated facts in support of their opinions without doing any real gum-shoeing?

I have a confession to make: I’m writing about the Michael Tomasky cover story without having read it all. I tried, I really did, but somehow I kept dozing off while laboring through this extended expose of the Mittster’s alleged lack of manliness and the insightful commentary about his being “kind of lame.”

Shocking revelation: Romney recently let his wife drive the Jet Ski while he rode on the back. (If Romney were a Democrat, do you suppose Newsweek would have reported that as a sign of an egalitarian marriage? And if Romney were driving the Jet Ski, wouldn’t that be proof that Mormons oppress women?)

Tomasky may have unwittingly helped Romney’s cause among voters like me who are not particularly in love with either candidate or party. (“A seasoned journalist set out to do a hatched job on Romney and this is all he got? Maybe Romney’s not such a bad guy after all.”)

Discussions of wimpiness in the White House do no favors to President Obama. He spent his first two years there as a non-factor until President Pelosi-Reid-Baucus nearly brought the Democratic Party to ruin.

Both men have demonstrated their capability to take decisive action and to lead in difficult situations. It’s their ideologies that concern me.

Related article: What Exactly Did Barry Diller Say About Newsweek's Future?

What Exactly Did Barry Diller Say About Newsweek's Future?

Barry Diller's cryptic comments yesterday about Newsweek have led to much speculation, some misquoting and downright erroneous reporting by the media, and charges of "scaremongering" from editor Tina Brown.

To help clear the waters, here is exactly what Diller, chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp (Newsweek's majority owner), said about the iconic but money-losing magazine during the company's quarterly earnings call. He was responding to an analyst's question about the expenses IAC took on in acquiring the brand and whether there was "a Plan B to make it perhaps a lighter asset like an online-only business."

Diller's response:

Yes, the consolidation does put us squarely on our heads. We knew this really shortly after Sidney Harmon died that the indication was -- though it wasn't any kind of absolute, nor is it an absolute today -- that the Harmon family didn’t think that they were going to contribute to the losses in the business.

And neither by the way are we going to contribute to the losses of the business as they have been this year. Or investment next year will be considerably less than it is this year.