Postal Service on verge of going broke, shutting down
'If Congress doesn't act, we will default,' postmaster general says
The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances.
“Our situation is extremely serious,” the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. “If Congress doesn’t act, we will default.”
In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency’s deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers — nearly one-fifth of the agency’s work force — despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions’ contracts.
The post office’s problems stem from one hard reality: it is being squeezed on both revenue and costs.
21 comments:
There aren't too many days that go by when I think our government just can't get any more screwed up than it is. If you take a minute to think what would happen to our country if the postal system shut down, you would realize it would be a very serious time. Companies would collapse and go out of business within days. In a time where we're trying to create jobs, we would be losing thousands of jobs. If we think we've seen bad times, wait and experience life without the postal system. We bailed out the car makers, the banks and financial institutions, so I'm betting our government will find a way to bail the post office out. What's so terrible about no mail on Saturdays? Usually there is at least one bill in that mail and I can certainly wait until Monday for that!!
This will be the tactic the Democrats will use all year long, They can't run on their own record so they make up falsehoods on what the Republicans might do.
lies, lies and more lies. don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see from this administration and the libs.......
They need to raise rates, cut service, and get even worse at scattering the mail around if they want to keep trying to stave off competitors; isn't that the business model they work under?
Will always remember the carrier writing me a note to clear the snow better cause she had to get out of her truck - while the UPS driver was jogging up the driveway with a package. Really willing to pay USPS more for that kind or service.
maybe someone should ask what the $5.5 billion is needed for?
oh yeah, that's right, to pay all those bloated retirees salaries.
my bad.
thanks to the unions again,and greed, soon many will be out of work, i remember reading a article about 20 years ago about how the postal workers cost of living raises where one of the only group of workers that there cost of living raises where more than the real cost of living, i sure hope some of the workers saved some of that money because the unions will not pay them when they are out of work, maybe the dept of energy should become union so we can do away with it, since they have been doing such a great job with the oil dependence, or maybe we should push for more union jobs in the goverment, because you know that the greed will shut them down at some point,
I don't get into politics,but I can see where this is going.Not that anyone planned it this way,but eventually people will be paying all of their bills on-line.I for one don't like putting any of my personal info on-line.I have always mailed payments via USPS.Big brother is rapidly becoming a reality.
I have always said to cut the Saturday delivery. If they had done it years ago, maybe they would be in better shape. There is no need to receive junk mail 6 days a week. 5 is plenty. I pay all my bills on line, and have my bills sent to me electronically except for a couple of companies that refuse to get into the 21st century. The only thing I mail, are Christmas cards and such, but then again, hasn't that become a racket? $5 for a friggin card that will get thrown away?
Shut it down. action will come quick.
shut it down, it will make someone a lot of money as a private business and will be run much better also.
I'm really getting sick and tired of the rhetoric shoved down our throats by the government on this one. USPS has operated in the red for years now and they are still PROPOSING solutions. Just another government agency that doesn't have a clue how to run efficiently.You want to know why? Because they don't have to be efficient. All they have to do is cry poor and the money will flow from our pockets to their inefficient ones.
If you want a bailout fine, but first execute solutions. The top administrators must be let go. Post office closings must no longer be an idea but a reality.Saturday delivery is no longer, as it should have been many years ago.Any monies given will go to day to day operations and not to the pension system.If these conditions are not met there should be no money period, and the agency dissolved. Give UPS delivery rights east of the Mississippi and FEDEX west.Problem solved.
Cutting Saturday deliveries will save loads of money, I know a part-time carrier that just works Saturdays delivering mail from her car, making over $20.00 an hour plus mileage! I wish I made that kind of dough!
Close them down!
put the postal services up for bid and you will see quality rise and all the red tape and waste dissapear .
Do UPS and FedEx make a profit? Are they union?
"At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees."
This about sums it up. Technology has just about done away with the Post Office, just as it has for phone land-lines and newspapers. The PO made being a postal worker very lucrative, so much so that it now can't pay its bills. There are thousands of retired PO workers who receive wonderful benefits. The demise of the PO was, of course, not seen a generation ago. It is now definitely in a very difficult position.
What has more loafers than Kenny shoes?
Cut the USPS off at the legs. Every business and their brother wants a hand out to make ends meet. Should have planned much better, see ya, wouldn't want to be ya!
I know a part-time carrier that just works Saturdays delivering mail from her car, making over $20.00 an hour plus mileage! I wish I made that kind of dough!
September 5, 2011 1:23 PM
lol it's not that much if she only works one day. about 100 buck after taxes.
The problem is from the previous administration and the way they handled the Post Office system. The unions who the post office employees represent are the bigger problem. It doesn't take a genius to deliver mail, but the equipment may be a little harder to learn. Still not rocket science, thats for sure.
Just my 2 cents, but this administration didn't start this, even though it hasn't done anything to correct it either.
the post office has had problems for years. their way of 'fixing' it was to raise the price of postage, and we can see how that worked. top management needs an overall, probably in to the private sector, to get this service cleaned up and working as it should. another of the problems is people are paying bills on line which saves them postage and you receive immediate confirmation of payment and that is taken care of the month. I was a late bloomer when it came to paying online, but it is the way to go!
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