GOP Goes Batty on the Postal Service

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/29-5

In the next few days we may decide the future of the Post Office. The signs are not auspicious. President Obama has agreed to a plan to cut Saturday delivery. The Post Service’s management wants to close 2500 post offices immediately and up to 16,000 by 2020. Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) has introduced a bill that could end free door-to-door delivery.

Republicans have been railing at the government post office for many years. But for most of us, it is a “wondrous American creation”.

“Six days a week it delivers an average of 563 million pieces of mail—40 percent of the entire world’s volume”, observes BusinessWeek. “For the price of a 44¢ stamp (the lowest postal rate in the world), you can mail a letter anywhere within the nation’s borders. The service will carry it by pack mule to the Havasupai Indian reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Mailmen on snowmobiles take it to the wilds of Alaska. If your recipient can no longer be found, the USPS will return it at no extra charge. It may be the greatest bargain on earth.”

For all you Constitutionalists in the audience, the Founding Fathers considered the Post Office so important they included its creation on the short list of powers they bestowed on Congress, along with national defense, taxation, coining money, and regulating commerce

A Public Institution With a Public Mission

More at the link --

[blm]

1. Bush and GOP congress engineered this 'crisis' in 2006. They forced a most onerous mandate on USPS

that called for complete funding of health and retirement benefits of its employees for the next 75yrs, which includes future employees that haven't even been born yet. This is a mandate that NO GOP lawmaker would demand of a private sector company, even the ones who were proven to have criminally stolen pensions from their employees ala Enron. That fund now has over 50billion dollars in it because the USPS was forced to sock away over 5 billion a year visa this mandate put on them alone.

Why would GOP do that? To MANUFACTURE the PR crisis the USPS is facing these days, feeding into demands for privatization, and knowing some of their financial cronies will swoop in and take control of the mail service AND the HEFTY BANK ACCOUNT.

Hey....that's what fascism is all about, after all. GOP is in it to serve the fascist agenda, not the Constitution.

[ellie]

2. Those rural red state Americans

who use the post office as a meeting place are in for a rude surprise. My sister works in a very small office in the country and it is the de facto gathering spot. It's another instance of selfish idiots wanting everyone's services cut except for theirs.

[GKirk]

3. And we should keep it open

as a meeting place? Come on, that arguement doesn't hold water.

[blm]

4. The offices should stay open PERIOD - read the Constitution. BushInc/GOP in 2006 set this 'crisis'

in play in 2006.

[GKirk]

5. What is the relevant

quote from the constitution?

[Bake]

6. Go read Article II for yourself.

:hi:

Bake

[GKirk]

7. You're quite the champion

for your cause.

[blm]

8. and the cause you are championing is....what?

from wikipedia....

The United States Postal Service (also known as USPS, the Post Office or U.S. Mail) is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution.
The USPS traces its roots to 1775 during the Second Continental Congress, where Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. The cabinet-level Post Office Department was created in 1792 from Franklin's operation and transformed into its current form in 1971 under the Postal Reorganization Act.
The USPS has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s with the minor exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters. Revenue has been in freefall due to declining mail volume.<3> The postal service has attempted to look to other sources of revenue while cutting costs to reduce its budget deficit.<4>
The USPS employs over 574,000 workers and operates over 218,000 vehicles. It is the second-largest employer in the United States after Wal-Mart, and the operator of the largest vehicle fleet in the world.<5> The USPS is legally obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price and quality. The USPS has exclusive access to letter boxes marked "U.S. Mail" and personal letterboxes in the United States, but still competes against private package delivery services, such as UPS and FedEx.