Postal Service says it needs law changes in order to pay bills

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: cnn

Washington (CNN) -- Despite significant cost-cutting, the U.S. Postal Service has "an inflexible business model" that will make it unable to pay huge bills without legislative fixes, the postmaster general testified Wednesday.

The agency cut $3 billion in costs last year and will see about $2 billion in savings this year, but it still won't have the revenue to meet its obligations, Patrick R. Donahoe told the House postal oversight committee.

Despite cutting 230,000 positions in recent years, without significant changes, he said, the Postal Service, which is not taxpayer funded, cannot survive as a self-financed entity.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/02/postal.service.hearing/index.html?on.cnn=1

[msongs]

1. start charging more for all the junk and trash it delivers that it dumps on everyone nt

[OhioChick]

2. No shit....

I get a ton of garbage every day.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Those cumbersome laws are there to provide an excuse for privatization.

"See! See! The Post Office doesn't work! Only Private Enterprise can succeed!"

Expect the Repug response to be still more obstacles to USPS financial management.

[IamK]

4. I could not find what laws they want to change in the article? am I missing it?

[PoliticAverse]

6. The problem they have having is the law that requires them to prefund future health care costs. n/t

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. It needs to be prefunded so that taxpayers are not stuck with the bill

Snail mail is going the way of the dodo.

[Kingofalldems]

11. Fail

An absolute lie. They have overpaid for years.

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. Fail

[Kingofalldems]

10. Correct

They have overpaid to the fund for years.

[RantinRavin]

5. Here's an idea

Stop running "priority mail" ads on TV every 15 freaking minutes !

[starroute]

8. I would guess those ads probably pay for themselves and more

The real "problem" the post office faces isn't a matter of its more commercial services. It has to do with its obligation to have a post office in every community and deliver the mail to everyone.

That is an essential function of government, of course, and it's ridiculous to expect it to be self-supporting. But ever since the Nixon administration quasi-privatized the post office in 1971, that's what the expectation has been.

Not surprisingly, the current head of the US Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue, got his start by serving as an assistant postmaster general from 1969 to 1976. He went directly from there to a vice presidential position with the Chamber, where he headed an anti-government, anti-union, astroturf lobbying group called Citizen's Choice.

These things are all tied together, and the post office plays a more central role than most people realize.

[FSogol]

9. Stop requiring that the USPS operate like a business and recognize that they are a Govt service.

Fund them properly and let them deliver the mail.

[sarcasmo]

13. If it wasn't for junk mail we would get very little mail. Paying bills online pretty much

eliminates the need for daily mail delivery.