U.S. Post Office Cuts Saturday Mail Delivery

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Not surprising.....

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2013/02/post-office-cuts-saturday-mail/

Post Office Cuts Saturday Mail
By Richard Davies
@daviesabc
Feb 6, 2013 8:03am

Morning Business Memo…
Billions of dollars in the red, and facing a financial crisis, the US Postal Service says it plans to stop delivering mail on Saturdays, but continue delivering packages six days a week. In an announcement set for later today, the USPS is expected to say the cut, due to begin in August, would mean an annual cost saving of about $2 billion a year. One of the few bright spots for the Postal Service is package delivery, which has increased by 14 percent since 2010. The delivery of letters and other mail has declined with the increasing use of email and the internet. Last September the service reported a record $15.9 billion loss for its fiscal year. For the first time last year the post office was forced to default on payments owed to its future retiree health benefits fund.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

But of course, that's not the full story.....

http://www.thenation.com/blog/171301/easy-task-congress-save-post-office#

An Easy Task for Congress: Save the Post Office
John Nichols on November 16, 2012 - 9:55 AM ET

The US Postal Service is in the midst of a manufactured crisis. It is supposedly broke and headed toward a sort of fiscal cliff of its own. If it goes over, the likely result is privatization of its profitable enterprises and elimination of the commitment to universal service that has been the service's promise since the founding of the republic.

But that does not have to happen.

Congress undermined the financial stability of the postal service during a lame-duck session six years ago.

It can repair the damage done during this session.

The task is not difficult.

The lift is not heavy.

It is merely a matter of will.

Friday’s New York Times noted that “the Postal Service on Thursday reported a record $15.9 billion net loss for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, bringing the financially troubled agency another step closer to insolvency.”

That’s the CliffsNotes version of the story. And if people read no further, they’ll think that the USPS is a mess. But it’s not. It’s merely in a financial mess created by Congress.

Two-thirds of the $15.9 billion “loss” involved what the Times referred to as “accounting expenses of $11.1 billion related to two payments that the agency was supposed to make into its future retiree health benefits fund.”

Those accounting expenses were imposed not by necessity but by Congress. And the imposition can be lifted, along with restrictions on the ability of the service to compete.

In 2006, a Republican Congress—acting at the behest of the Bush-Cheney administration—enacted a law that required the postal service to “pre-fund” retiree health benefits seventy-five years into the future. No major private-sector corporation or public-sector agency could do that. It’s an untenable demand.

“[The] Postal Service in the short term should be released from an onerous and unprecedented burden to pre-fund 75 years of future retiree health benefits over a ten-year period,” says US Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont. “With $44 billion now in the fund, the Postal Service inspector general has said that program is already stronger than any other equivalent government or private-sector fund in the country. There already is more than enough in the account to meet all obligations to retirees.”

“The Postal Service should also be allowed to recover more than $13 billion in overpayments it has made to its pension plans,” Sanders explained earlier this year, as the current “crisis” began to take shape. “With these changes alone, the Postal Service would be back in the black and posting profits.”

Sanders and other concerned legislators have gotten the Senate to take some steps toward addressing what is, in reality, a Congressional crisis—not a postal crisis. But the disengaged and dysfunctional Republican leadership in the House has failed to act in an even minimally responsible manner.

The Post Office will need to make changes. It will need to evolve as the ways in which Americans communicate change. But it can and should remain the vital source of community and connection that it has been since the nation’s founding. For that to happen, however, the USPS must be allowed by maintain staffing and infrastructure, to expand services, to operate in a fiscally responsible and fiscally sane manner—not required to default.

And now is the time to act.

The unions that represent postal workers say so.

The unions that represent postal workers say so. National Association of Letter Carriers president Fredric Rolando correctly notes that, with the rejection of the austerity agenda proposed by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, “The election offers the prospect that the financial problems facing the United States Postal Service can be resolved in a fair and reasonable manner that benefits the public.”

But it’s not just unions that are looking for a postal “fix.” The businesses that rely on the postal service are demanding action. “The Postal Service is facing a fiscal cliff of its own, and any unanticipated drop in mail volumes could send the agency over the edge,” says Art Sackler, who works with the business-led Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, which has urged Congress to enact comprehensive postal legislation during its lame-duck session. “If Congress fails to act, there could be postal slowdowns or shutdowns that would have catastrophic consequences for the eight million private-sector workers whose jobs depend on the mail.”

The concerns of small businesses and mailers create an space for President Obama to make a call for congressional action to renew the Postal Service.

Obama should speak up for the Postal Service now, as the lame-duck session gets started. And he and his fellow Democrats should look to build a coalition for its future with rural Republicans.

Yes, those rural Republicans are conservative on a host of issues. But a collapse of the USPS would do the most severe damage to rural regions, particularly in the West.

Is it crazy to imagine such a coalition? Actually, some Western members of Congress who have been harsh critics of the president and the Democrats on other issues are reasonably sympathetic when it comes to the future of post offices. At the second presidential debate, I spent a good deal of time talking with Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz talking about the USPS. We both knew that the issue would not come up in the narrowly constructed debate; but we also recognized that it should be on the agenda.

Chaffetz is one of Obama’s toughest critics, but as the ranking Republican ranking member on the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia, he understands at least some of the absurdity to the demands that have been placed on the postal service. And he is not alone in this regard.

Take a look at the election maps of the United States and you will see a fascinating dynamic: There are dozens of rural counties across the United States that voted for Barack Obama for president and for Republicans in US House and Senate races.

Voters still split tickets. They are not naïve. They know it is hard to get Democrats and Republicans working together these days. But they expect at least a measure of cooperation on issues that are essential to the small towns where they live: like passing a farm bill and saving a postal service.

Advocates for the postal service might even remind some of our “constitutional conservative” friends that the USPS is one of the few American institutions referenced in the founding document.

“Article 1, Section 8, Clause 7 of the US Constitution gives Congress the responsibility to establish and ensure operation of the Postal Service…” notes Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio. “Congress is presiding over the disestablishment of the Postal Service. Today a manufactured default created by Congressional legislation is pushing the Postal Service to the brink.”

Kucinich is right.

This postal “crisis” was manufactured by Congress.

The same Congress—perhaps with a prod from a president who has a mandate to get things done—can during this lame-duck session manufacture a socially necessary and fiscally responsible repair to the system.

The USPS is not “broke.” It was broken by Congress. And it should be fixed by Congress.

[jhale667]

Not surpising, but still pretty lame.

[ELVIS]

More evidence that the federal government is too large to wipe it's own ass...

Just wait 'till the healthscare debacle is underway...


:elvis:

[Nitro Express]

Yeah they will fix the postal service just like they fixed our healthcare system.:biggrin: They can make more money by charging you a tax for not sending any mail.

[FORD]

More evidence that the federal government is too large to wipe it's own ass...

Just wait 'till the healthscare debacle is underway...


:elvis:

The problem here is NOT the "federal government". The postal service was actually fine, since it was funded through the sale of postage stamps, as opposed to taxes. It's not like any other Federal agency, in that respect.

But the teabaggers in Congress came up with this harebrained scheme of making them fund healthcare for people who literally aren't even born yet - 75 fucking years in advance. What other entity on earth - public or private - has been asked to do that??

And you know WHY they want to do it? Because the US postal service is the largest union employer left on this planet, and the KKKoch Brothers/Shittizens United types want it destroyed. And also FedEx is a notoriously right wing company, and they obviously stand to gain from anything that hurts the Post Office.

Not that Saturday delivery is all that big of a deal from a consumer standpoint. But you're crazy if you think the assault on the USPS will stop there.

[Zing!]

I don't get my mail on Saturdays until around 5:00 pm anyway, and I suspect the driver is tipsy as I usually get the wrong mail, so this doesn't change much for me.

[ZahZoo]

The paper recycling business should be funding huge kick-backs to the Postal Service... Plus they should raise bulk rate junk mail rates by a dollar per piece.

Every day... get mail, walk to recycling bin, dump 80% of mail unopened, unread, unwanted... Pause and cuss at the bills... then move along!!

[FORD]

February 6, 2013

Sen. Bernie Sanders said today he will oppose a U.S. Postal Service plan to end Saturday mail delivery.

“The postmaster general cannot save the Postal Service by ending one of its major competitive advantages. Cutting six-day delivery is not a viable plan for the future. It will lead to a death spiral that will harm rural America while doing very little to improve the financial condition of the Postal Service,” Sanders said. “Providing fewer services and less quality will cause more customers to seek other options. Rural Americans, businesses, senior citizens and veterans will be hurt by ending Saturday mail,” Sanders added.

The House last year refused to consider a Senate-passed postal reform bill that Sanders helped draft.

The Senate measure to modernize the Postal Service would have changed a 2006 congressional requirement that the mail service pre-fund 75 years’ worth of future retiree health benefits over a 10-year period. That pre-funding requirement is responsible for about 80 percent of the Postal Service’s financial losses since 2007. “No other government agency, no other corporation in America is burdened with this mandate. This mandate must be lifted,” Sanders said.

Current federal law makes it illegal to end Saturday mail delivery. The Senate-passed bill would have reinforced the ban for two more years.

“It is time for Republican leadership in the House to work with the Senate to reform the Postal Service in a way that will not harm rural America and allows the Postal Service to adjust to the digital age without ending Saturday mail delivery,” Sanders said.

[Nitro Express]

You know you are a loser when you sit around on a Saturday waiting for the mail to come. Maybe a lonely housewife does that. Maybe the mailman comes with a special delivery while the husband is away fishing.

[Nickdfresh]

Yeah they will fix the postal service just like they fixed our healthcare system.:biggrin: They can make more money by charging you a tax for not sending any mail.

The knee-jerk ignorant cliche machine strikes again!

The truth is that the Postal system works well, it was actually a bunch of douchebags in congress that decided to show us how well they can't work by saddling them with obligations no private company ever has to deal with...

[Little Texan]

The knee-jerk ignorant cliche machine strikes again!

The truth is that the Postal system works well, it was actually a bunch of douchebags in congress that decided to show us how well they can't work by saddling them with obligations no private company ever has to deal with...

Yep, just repeal that stupid law that the Repuke Congress passed a few years back and problem solved! The postal service is back in the black not bleeding red ink and they can keep on delivering mail on Saturdays.

[ZahZoo]

“It is time for Republican leadership in the House to work with the Senate to reform the Postal Service in a way that will not harm rural America and allows the Postal Service to adjust to the digital age without ending Saturday mail delivery,” Sanders said.

How exactly does halting Saturday delivery of regular mail harm rural America in any way?

[Nickdfresh]

It probably doesn't really effect anyone that much. But I've heard in the past that the Postal Service didn't want to do this because Saturday was magazine day and they received a good deal of revenue from it...

[FORD]

How exactly does halting Saturday delivery of regular mail harm rural America in any way?

It's one less day for mail to move, and if you live in the sticks, that's probably significant, since it takes mail longer to get to you anyway.

I'm guessing what Bernie is more concerned with here is that the next step obviously would be to close rural post offices. Which would slow down mail even more, and put people out of work unnecessarily.

And what about states which use mail in ballots for elections? I live in one such state. Not that I ever actually mail my ballot - I either deliver it directly to the county courthouse, or one of several secure drop boxes located all over town. But these options might not be available to folks that live out in the sticks.

Point is that none of this is necessary at all. There was nothing wrong with the Postal Service, just like there was nothing wrong with Social Security or Medicare, until they were deliberately sabotaged by these teabagging Randtard cunts in Congress. They hate government - especially when it actually works. So they go to ridiculous lengths to make sure it doesn't.

[Sarge]

I ACTUALLY DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE! The only mail that comes USPS anymore is BILLS and stuff from the IRS.

Breasts,

[Nitro Express]

Too me it doesn't seem like the volume of mail is down at all. I do a lot of mail order shopping on line but those places still send me catalogs in the mail. I get swamped with them. We still get magazines that come in the mail and lots of junk mail then the bills and checks and stuff. This being the time of graduation we have gotten a lot of graduation invitations from friends and family. From what I see the post office is still busy. I think it's a mismanagement of funds myself. It's like a school district. They get a lot more money than the equivalent of another industrialized nation but they just can't seem to make it on the budget.

[chefcraig]

An off duty mailman came into my business the other evening, and I asked him about the Saturday delivery. He said he isn't that surprised, as there have been signs on the wall for months now. He noted the later and later delivery times (we either get our home mail delivered around 1, and occasionally, at 7 or 8 PM). In some towns, the letter carriers have to cover territories increased to absurd proportions, leaving them still out, going house to house at 11 o'clock (and beyond) at night.

That simply must suck, stumbling around in the dark while carrying a heavy mail sack, all the while hoping a dog doesn't attack you or even worse, the idea that you might get shot by a homeowner.

[Sarge]

The post office workers are not government workers anymore.. right? I know it used to be a good place to work.

[Matt White]

The United States Post office employes more vets than any other "business" in the United States.....its a National Disgrace what they're trying to do to it

[BITEYOASS]

How about cutting Weeper of House John Boner's Liquor budget first?

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2011-01-11-MADBooHooBoehner-thumb.jpg