U.S. Postal Services Loses 57 Million Per Day

[Guest]

Losses of the U.S. Postal Service put at $57,000,000 a day according to a recent Associated Press article. The article goes on to say, "The Postal Service for months has been urging Congress to pass legislation that would allow it to eliminate Saturday mail delivery and reduce the annual health payment of more than 5 Billion a year." Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said, "Congress needs to act responsibly and move on this legislation....This is no way to run any kind of business."

What does Congress do? They headed home for a five-week break and kicked the can further down the road. Unbelievable!

[Guest]

Losses of the U.S. Postal Service put at $57,000,000 a day according to a recent Associated Press article. The article goes on to say, "The Postal Service for months has been urging Congress to pass legislation that would allow it to eliminate Saturday mail delivery and reduce the annual health payment of more than 5 Billion a year." Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said, "Congress needs to act responsibly and move on this legislation....This is no way to run any kind of business."

What does Congress do? They headed home for a five-week break and kicked the can further down the road. Unbelievable!

The Congress is gutless. All they see is reelection poll numbers. They need to reinvent this dinosaur.

[Guest]

Losses of the U.S. Postal Service put at $57,000,000 a day according to a recent Associated Press article. The article goes on to say, "The Postal Service for months has been urging Congress to pass legislation that would allow it to eliminate Saturday mail delivery and reduce the annual health payment of more than 5 Billion a year." Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said, "Congress needs to act responsibly and move on this legislation....This is no way to run any kind of business."

What does Congress do? They headed home for a five-week break and kicked the can further down the road. Unbelievable!

I suggest you read this thread...."How to save the US Post Office?"

which in a general manner lay out the TWO bill in congress right now and the differences in them.

Congress is admitedly sorry, but before you criticize them on a willy nilly basis, it may be wise to do some reading.

I would think that your comment may have been instigated from some website with its own agenda.

There are some very serious union issues that need to be fixed if we want to fix it long term...if we want to continue with the band aids...well..

[Guest]

I am aware that there are two bills and that there is a House and Senate. The Senate has passed a bill----- the House has not. The way this is supposed to work is the two chambers get together and work out their differences. Not happening and as the Postmaster General said, "This is no way to run a business." Congress (The House and Senate) just kicked the can down the road----they work so hard that they took a 5 week vacation. Unfortunately the way the Postal Service is setup, it is under congressional control. Bucco you are exactly right---congress is sorry and that is an understatement. It is the House bill that would allow for real cuts including cut back on Saturday delivery and the consolidating and closing of many postal service offices. However, they want to wait until after the election to move on any legislation. Its the same old story of CAREER POLITICIANS wanting to be reelected instead of making the necessary tough decisions that sort of maybe save the Postal Service. It may be a dead man walking anyway.

[Guest]

I am aware that there are two bills and that there is a House and Senate. The Senate has passed a bill----- the House has not. The way this is supposed to work is the two chambers get together and work out their differences. Not happening and as the Postmaster General said, "This is no way to run a business." Congress (The House and Senate) just kicked the can down the road----they work so hard that they took a 5 week vacation. Unfortunately the way the Postal Service is setup, it is under congressional control. Bucco you are exactly right---congress is sorry and that is an understatement. It is the House bill that would allow for real cuts including cut back on Saturday delivery and the consolidating and closing of many postal service offices. However, they want to wait until after the election to move on any legislation. Its the same old story of CAREER POLITICIANS wanting to be reelected instead of making the necessary tough decisions that sort of maybe save the Postal Service. It may be a dead man walking anyway.

1. Do you think the house version if they acted before the election has any chance in this mans world of ever seeing the light of day ?
Reid will not even discuss in the Senate scams on our tax money by illegal immigrants that is clear cut. He will not allow it to be discussed.

2. The postal authority has already said that the Senate bill does not go far enough.

What would you have the House do....the Senate will block any and all bills from there

[Guest]

1. Do you think the house version if they acted before the election has any chance in this mans world of ever seeing the light of day ?
Reid will not even discuss in the Senate scams on our tax money by illegal immigrants that is clear cut. He will not allow it to be discussed.

2. The postal authority has already said that the Senate bill does not go far enough.

What would you have the House do....the Senate will block any and all bills from there

Congress is hopelessly deadlocked. The way it use to work, as previously stated, is that the House and Senate got together and worked out a compromise. The far left and far right of the two parties won't compromise and there are not enough moderates to carry the day. The word "compromise" is now the shunned word in Washington. This type of posturing could very well take us over the fiscal cliff if cooler heads don't soon prevail. Meanwhile USPS continues to lose 57,000,000 a day. As Senator Everett Dirksen once was quoted "a billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money." Oh, for some more Senator's like the late Illinois Senator Dirksen.

[Guest]

Congress is hopelessly deadlocked. The way it use to work, as previously stated, is that the House and Senate got together and worked out a compromise. The far left and far right of the two parties won't compromise and there are not enough moderates to carry the day. The word "compromise" is now the shunned word in Washington. This type of posturing could very well take us over the fiscal cliff if cooler heads don't soon prevail. Meanwhile USPS continues to lose 57,000,000 a day. As Senator Everett Dirksen once was quoted "a billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money." Oh, for some more Senator's like the late Illinois Senator Dirksen.

Now you are getting close to something here. Instead of lobbing at one side in congress, you are onto something.

Now, the country has no budget whatsoever, thus we simply make things up as we go.

You seem to know a lot about the postal service.....thus my question is what are the options....people keep saying to take it private instead of the continuing government screw ups. Can that be done in the current climate, ie. WH and union contracts ?

[Guest]

With the current White House-----NO! The figures that I could quickly find on mail carriers was 46,970 avg. annual wage in 2008. Service clerks, sorters and processors was 50,150. Of course, benefits on top of the salaries. Salaries not as high as one might expect. I am sure there are administrative positions that could easily be cut. As far as I can tell the union contracts would not prohibit closing postal service offices around the country. In fact, some sorting and distribution centers are currently closing and consolidating. One could easily argue, that the lack of action lies with the Congress and White House and not with the Unions. Besides, union contracts can be negotiated. But we cannot vote out a Congress person who is not in our District.

[Guest]

With the current White House-----NO! The figures that I could quickly find on mail carriers was 46,970 avg. annual wage in 2008. Service clerks, sorters and processors was 50,150. Of course, benefits on top of the salaries. Salaries not as high as one might expect. I am sure there are administrative positions that could easily be cut. As far as I can tell the union contracts would not prohibit closing postal service offices around the country. In fact, some sorting and distribution centers are currently closing and consolidating. One could easily argue, that the lack of action lies with the Congress and White House and not with the Unions. Besides, union contracts can be negotiated. But we cannot vote out a Congress person who is not in our District.

I did a bit of checking just to satisfy my intellectual curiosity on this, and think I can present a few different sides (with no opinion which should make you happy, at least not until I read more about the history)

This is from this past February.....It sort of shows the problem and the two different angles to fix it..



"Although the Postal Service is a self-funding entity that doesn’t use taxpayer dollars to pay for its operations, it is a significant piece of the unified federal budget because its workers and retirees draw benefits from federal workers’ compensation, retirement and health-care accounts.

Postal Service officials said last week that the agency lost $3.3 billion in the quarter that ended in December. While the Postal Service generated $200 million in profit from mail deliveries, $3.1 billion in obligations required by law to prefund future worker retirements — a charge unique to USPS — offset the gains and resulted in the overall loss. "
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" In the budget plan released Monday, the White House proposed relaxing those payments by allowing the Postal Service to include fewer employees in the payments and to make the payments over a longer period of time. Obama also backed an end to Saturday mail deliveries and proposed granting USPS the authority to raise the price of stamps beyond the rate of inflation, if necessary. Obama also would refund $10.9 billion to USPS over two years from a credit it has with the Federal Employee Retirement System.

If enacted, the White House said the proposals would help USPS save $25 billion in the next 11 years. "
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"Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who is sponsoring a House GOP postal reform bill, said Obama’s proposal “lacks the necessary comprehensive approach to restore the Postal Service to solvency.”

Issa agreed that ending Saturday mail delivery is necessary, but he added that “infusing the agency with cash and hiking postage rates without requiring USPS to reduce costs and realign itself to meet America’s changing use of mail is just buying a very small amount of time with a very big check.”
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So it appears that both parties are for nixing Sat but the Republicans feel the plan is just a band aid and not a cure

[Guest]

Bucco: What I meant to say----No the WH would not go for a private postal service. Pensions are costly and people are living longer driving up the cost beyond what was originally projected. We do love our entitlements!