politics

Seriously, Something must be done. the writing is on the wall. Stop kicking the can down the road.No one needs Saturday mail service! It is totally unnessary. Politicians need to get some backbone.

The House and the Senate are the entire problem with the USPS. I agree that they should keep Saturday service, but they could dump Monday service and realize some savings.

Also, USPS should be allowed to raise rates on bulk mail, advertising, and first class. If they did, they would be just fine financially. USPS is allowed to compete with UPS and FedEx on parcel and next-day service, and they do as good a job for very comparable rates. Sometimes USPS has much better rates than the private competitors, and they should; in a lot of the more remote parts of the country, USPS actually does the hauling for UPS and FedEx.

This is all about advertiser's and UPS/FedEx contributions to politicians, who then turn around and cynically blame USPS's workers for the fiscal problems caused by Congress. It's all part of the program to destroy all public enterprise and turn it over to the for-profit sector, while shrinking the middle class and reducing more and more jobs to low-wage temp status.

I looking at todays mail, A Direct TV postcard offer,a Macys postcard advertising "Clinique" products, envelope from Citi bank trying to get me to sign up for their credit card, Letter from AAA to join their club,flyer from Ulta beauty,and a Bed Bath and beyond ad....... Yep all critical mail!

As with Medicare and Social Security, the Democrats are taking a pass on fixing the problems with the Post Office. Just passing the buck.

The Post Office is transitioning to meet what consumers want. We are delivering more packages than ever before and, are offering more advertising options for businesses.With EDDM Every Door Direct Marketing even small businesses can target a specific neighborhood or blanket an area with advertising at modest prices. Because of restrictions it just takes the USPS longer to make changes.

Being cheap and greedy has become the national past time. Raise the price or cut services. They really have to discuss/debate how to run the post office at cost. We are so screwed.

A government agency losing 4 billion a year and the senate doesn't wand to do anything. How about a little reporting on who voted for and against. I am guessing right along party lines.

Politicians sticking their noses into the operations of this entity is why the problems exist in the first place. If they cann't even make simple decisions about the most obvious things that need to be cut back a little then they never will be able to come up with workable solutions for the major items that will have to be trimmed some.

The post office financial situation is a manufactured crisis put in place by the 2006 Republican Congress which required the USPS to prefund retirement health care for $5.5 billion a year. Funding a 75 year obligation over a 10 year period. No other organization public or private prefunds at that level. It was a poison pill designed to take down a public good and a couple public sector unions. Thank goodness that journalists like Matt Taibbi and radio talker Ed Schultz have shown a light on what is going on. By contrast, the corporate print medias coverage has been awful on the origins of this planned crisis.

Congress should fix this mess, as they created it with one line of legislation in 2006. Sec. 8909a. Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund "(B) Not later than June 30, 2017, the Office shall compute, and by June 30 of each succeeding year shall recompute, a schedule including a series of annual installments which provide for the liquidation of any liability or surplus by September 30, 2056". With that line of text, Congress said the USPS needs to fund all healthcare for retiree's by 2017 - to cover through 2056. if you wonder where the USPS's budget is going to - its going in to a fund that they can not touch for any operations; just in case someone needs to go to the hospital 30 years from now.