Posted on 06/29/2014 5:41:01 AM PDT by Kaslin
Darrell Issa has been waging an under-the-radar campaign to save the Postal Service for years now. The most recent iteration of his plan, the Postal Reform Act, would save $17 billion over the next ten years for the USPS. The major changes would be giving the USPS the ability to eliminate Saturday delivery and encouraging curbside rather than doorstep drop-offs.
Additionally, it would eliminate what the postal workers' union has claimed is the major deficit on the USPS budget: a requirement that the USPS pre-fund retirement benefits to the tune of over $6 billion per year.
In both eliminating the pre-funding requirement and giving the USPS the ability to be more flexible with their mandates, Darrell Issa's reform should hit all the right buttons. And the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget wrote up the CBO score for Issa's bill favorably:
The bulk of the savings would come from two changes in mail delivery. The first would authorize the Postal Service to eliminate Saturday mail delivery, which CBO expects it would do, saving $11 billion over ten years. The second would require the USPS to increase the use of curbside and centralized delivery, rather than delivering directly to people's doors. This change would save $8 billion. In addition, the bill would save smaller amounts from eliminating annual appropriations to reimburse USPS for free and reduced-rate mail ($800 million) and from increasing rates on bypass mail delivered to Alaska ($170 million).
The Postal Reform Act represents a responsible approach to fixing the Postal Service's finances. Congress should not hesitate to act, especially given the trouble the USPS is having in meeting its contribution obligations for future health benefits.
I've written more about the Post Office and the prospects for reform here.
Is his plan to grandstand, jump up and down, but never actually do anything? That would fit the pattern.
If you think you could do better why don't you run for his office and do it, Bigmouth
No to curbside too many damn crooks
What is curbside service? My mailman already delivers at a box on the curb.
I would love to not have any mail delivered to my house but our post office requires a physical location to deliver mail other than a PO box.
The Post Office’s “customers” are ~400 bulk mailers. They’re the only ones the USPS makes any money off of. You, the 1st-class postage mailer? You do nothing for them, possibly less than nothing. They couldn’t care less about the ordinary citizen’s mail needs.
Same Story from a year ago
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/door-to-door-mail-delivery-on-chopping-block/
Who was against it?
Unions
—— centralized delivery-—
What is centralized delivery?
If you really need six day a week delivery, then rent a post office box.
And does every house really need curbside delivery? Walking will do you good. My wife picks up the newspapers and mail for an elderly neighbor who has trouble walking. During the winter, another neighbor and I take turns shoveling her walk. That's what people in decent communities do.
Do this, curb the damn postal union and encourage more partnerships like the USPS has with Staples and the problem is solved.
From the time by great-grandfather was a young father (circa 1880) until I was a young lad (circa 1970), the post office was super efficient. Postage rates ranged from two to six cents during that time. Railroads moved most of the mail. A letter mailed on the east coast would show up at a destination on the west coast in two or three days. Lines at post offices were minimal because your local Piggly Wiggly or whatever had a postal substation to sell stamps and mail pages. In fact, many little burgs didn't even have a separate post office at all because the local general store or hardware store or whatever would compete for the honor of hosting it. The precedent for a solvent postal system is already there.
My mother was born in 1913. She has an very good job as a secretary. Her pay was $15 a week. Two pennies out of the $15 was significant.
Ending door to door delivery should be the first step. It is beyond stupid to have mailmen walking around to deliver mail.
Everyone should have a PO box, then you can lay-off about half of them.
“What is centralized delivery?”
I suspect it is a big block of Lockable mailboxes centralized in a neighborhood. The Postman needs but to make just one stop opposed to stopping curbside at every house. I doubt the Union would be happy as obviously these plans include a lost less personnel. But it sure seems just 2 days I heard that Sat. delivery would continue.
Neighborhood mailboxes.
“What is centralized delivery?”
A big bank of mailboxes in one location, often one for an entire city block.
This “plan” is about a Republican politician and the big money behind him.
The USPS is spending beyond its means big time to the tune of billions.
We need real solutions that involve balancing budgets soon before all this debt explodes in our face and that is not going to happen with Republicans like Boehner, McCarthy, Ryan, Issa, Mitch McConnell, Thad Cochran, Lamar Alexander etc. etc. etc.
Dump ‘Em !!!!!!!!!!
Dick.G: AMERICAN!
aka: Gunny G
******
“You mentioned making the service better for our customers; but the American citizens aren’t our customers—about 400 junk mailers are our customers.” — US Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe to Outbox founder Evan Baehr
TOO many people running the organization.In addition to all the chiefs INSIDE the PO, there’s Congress....
IF they want the USPS to stand as a free enterprise, self funding, stand on it’s own business, they need to cut all strings to the Federal Government, and quit taking billions per year away from USPS to piss down the rat hole of government spending.
On the other hand, the Post Office is as much a Constitutionally proper function of the government as the military, and the military is never told to make a profit, or pre-fund future military members health care and retirements out to 75 years in the future.
So we need to do either one of two things. Put the PO back under full Government service and let it turn to total suck, or cut it completely away from the Gov and watch it figure out how to do it better than private companies it will then have to compete with.... I say all this as a mail carrier myself.
Might be true, but not very diplomatic.
Saving the Post Office is a laudable idea but saving this damn country should be the first and foremost priority.
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