Money-losing Postal Service to lose a little less money
The good news: The U.S. Postal Service proposes to take a solid step to address its annual shortfall by eliminating most mail delivery on Saturdays, saving an estimated $2 billion per year.
The bad news: That deficit isn’t $2 billion a year. It’s $16 billion a year.
There are skeptics that even the move to reduce Saturday deliveries (you’ll still see your postman at your mailbox on Saturdays if you’re expecting certain things, such as express mail and mail-order medications) will be all that effective. As Ed Morrissey notes at Hot Air, it depends in part on whether delivery trucks have the spare capacity on Mondays to handle the additional mail, or whether more drivers will require more trips back to the post office to complete their rounds.
And, as former U.S. comptroller general David Walker tells CBS News, the USPS still must “look at more fundamental changes in its infrastructure, its compensation costs, its retirement obligations, and also what it does and who does its business.” Kind of like government in general.
Still, it’s a good day when one of these long-overdue changes finally moves toward fruition (Congress still must approve the change, which always means there’s a chance common sense doesn’t prevail). Now, if only some other agencies and quasi-governmental agencies would follow suit.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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176 comments Add your comment
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
February 6th, 2013
4:45 pm
“There is a LOT LOT LOT LOT LOT more waste in the private sector
It isn’t even close.”
Disregarding the issue that you likely haven’t worked much in your lifetime, Cheesy, there is waste in both the private sector and the public sector. Depending on which public sector you are talking about, there can be lots of waste, or not much at all.
The difference is that if someone doesn’t wish to participate in a private company selling that over-priced product due to waste, they have that choice.
Government? Not so much.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 6th, 2013
4:46 pm
cheesy ignores my comments, hahahahahahaha, oh goodness, I liked that one.
MarkV
February 6th, 2013
4:46 pm
Dusty @4:01 pm
“As to having personal documents in the hands of private companies, they already are since the Post Office is suppposedly a private company.”
Dusty,
You should go back to civics class, The USPS is NOT a private company, it is an independent agency of the United States government, one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
February 6th, 2013
4:48 pm
Why should a letter cost the consumer only 42 cents to mail, if it costs the provider of the service more, will-o-the-wisp?
Why should a government service automatically run a deficit?
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 6th, 2013
4:52 pm
Anybody else tried to start their tax return and noticed that the government is like, not ready for us yet?
Been busy trying to shred the Constitution, hook al qaeda up with a few more countries, expand the welfare system, have ya?
Will they be paying interest on the money they owe us, hahahahahahahaha, yeah, right.
MarkV
February 6th, 2013
4:53 pm
Tiberius @ 4:40 pm
Tiberius,
I have not time to respond to the dumb things you continue to write, but if you want to compete for the dumbest post, you are certain of winning with this one.
“If the government wishes to use the postal service, they should pay the appropriate rate which gets that correspondence to their intended victims without any other payment.”
So the government should pay? With what? What other money does the government has than from taxes? Where does it get from? From taxpayers. That is “a subsidy using taxpayers’ money.”
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 6th, 2013
4:54 pm
Disregarding the issue that you likely haven’t worked much in your lifetime,
Ive had a job everyday of my life since I was 14 and started bagging groceries.
I’m 39 now.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
February 6th, 2013
4:59 pm
“So the government should pay?”
Yes.
“With what?”
Revenues received from tax assessments.
“What other money does the government has than from taxes?”
Fees and fines.
“Where does it get from?”
Everyone but 47% of wage earners.
“From taxpayers.”
Yup.
“That is “a subsidy using taxpayers’ money.”
Absolutely 100% incorrect, MarkV. That is called paying for a service rendered, sonny. You really don’t know a darned thing about capitalism, do you? You get a service for a fee. The fee is appropriate to cover the cost of that service. A subsidy is provided in lieu of services rendered. It is a handout.
Something you, as a liberal, should be intimately familiar with.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
February 6th, 2013
5:02 pm
“Ive had a job everyday of my life since I was 14 and started bagging groceries.
I’m 39 now.
You have no idea what you are talking about.”
And yet you spend most of the working day (and most nights) on this blog, Cheesy.
Pardon me if I’m not convinced.
Tealiban Party
February 6th, 2013
5:02 pm
Let’s redirect the $4 billion of oil company subsidies (since they are already EXTREMELY profitable) and help the USPS.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
February 6th, 2013
5:11 pm
Let’s direct the $4 billion in tax subsidies for oil to reducing our deficit, Tealiban.
Let the USPS take care of their own business.
Like every government program should.
Dusty
February 6th, 2013
5:14 pm
MarkV
I’m afraid you know more about “independent agencies” than you know about independent people..
Enjoy your subsidies. My reading comprehension tells me they feed your condescension..
Sue Ellen Ewing
February 6th, 2013
5:21 pm
Aesop’s Fables and other Lib Economic Theories you really are a miserable (you fill in the blank).
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
February 6th, 2013
5:22 pm
“Enjoy your subsidies. My reading comprehension tells me they feed your condescension..”
More like his fantasies, Dusty.
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 6th, 2013
5:26 pm
And yet you spend most of the working day (and most nights) on this blog, Cheesy.
Pardon me if I’m not convinced.
LOL. I almost never post after work.
Excuse me for being educated. I have a desk job and can post on here while doing it.
Either way proving something to you isn’t high on my bucket list.
MarkV
February 6th, 2013
5:27 pm
Dusty @ 5:14 pm
“MarkV I’m afraid you know more about “independent agencies” than you know about independent people.”
How typical for this blog, and how disappointing. You have no spine to admit your error, so you respond by being offensive.
CC
February 6th, 2013
5:39 pm
Cheesy:
“LOL. I almost never post after work. Excuse me for being educated. I have a desk job and can post on here while doing it.”
Just cheating some employer out of a full day’s work, eh?
Typical . . .
Tealiban Party
February 6th, 2013
5:41 pm
Tiberius – pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
February 6th, 2013
5:11 pm
Let’s direct the $4 billion in tax subsidies for oil to reducing our deficit, Tealiban. Let the USPS take care of their own business. Like every government program should.
I would be for that too Tiberius. Let the oil companies take care of themselves.
Politico
February 6th, 2013
6:03 pm
How cute…
Little Tibs and MarkV in their typical pillow fight
Hahahahah
CC
February 6th, 2013
6:07 pm
Obamaphones cost approximately $3.9 nillion in 2012. Eliminate the Obamaphone and redirect the money to the USPS. At least I won’t have to listen to the moochers talk on those ‘free’ phones as they check out at the grocery store using their EBC cards and food stamps.
CC
February 6th, 2013
6:09 pm
“$3.9 nillion” should read “$3.9 billion”.
Sorry . . .
MarkV
February 6th, 2013
6:36 pm
Politico @ 6:03 pm
It may be a cute pillow fight to you, but at least it was on subject.
Michael H. Smith
February 6th, 2013
6:56 pm
Politico
February 6th, 2013
4:35 pm
t
No it wasn’t just democrats but were there more democrats then republicans standing in opposition to transforming Social Security?
Politico
February 6th, 2013
7:36 pm
MHS
And the best you have is well there were more Democrats..
Hahahahahah
independent thinker
February 7th, 2013
8:19 am
More Malarkey from Kyie-Republicans in Congress purposly destroyed the USPS so cronies in private secto could benefit in violation of constitutional mandate. Does UPS and Fed Ex have to prepay pensions for 75 years???????
fair and balanced
February 7th, 2013
8:22 am
cc- what you call a free Obamaphone is really a Ronnie Raygun phone. He started the program. But this intellectual dishonesty is typical of the cons . Probably you do not believe the birth certificate is real too.