Slog
News & ArtsWednesday, December 19, 2012
Architecture Give Rural Types the Bloody Government They Vote For
Posted by Charles Mudede on Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 8:38 AM
All of this money that USPS is losing?
The financial outlook for the United States Postal Service (USPS) remains dim, with this week’s announcement that it incurred a record net loss of $15.9 billion for fiscal year 2012, compared to a $5.1 billion loss in fiscal year 2011.
Go to this post office today, tomorrow, and even after the holidays, and you will find a line that takes forever........
The United States Postal Service stayed the sword hanging over thousands of rural post offices, opting instead to cut opening hours in a bid to stem devastating financial losses.
First of all, there is nothing wrong with a government organization running at a loss—the government is not a business. Secondly, if cuts are to be made, they should begin and end with services in the rural areas. Give those people the government they are always voting for.
20
Junk mail is killing the US Post Office. Those mailers marked "Occupant" and "Current Resident" are the ones costing loads of money. Every time they're marked "return to sender" or "refused" the US Post Office has to return them to the sender at a loss.
19
"Without the [unecessary, Republican-legislated pre-funding] pension payment, USPS would have a $1.5 billion surplus instead of a $20 billion shortfall." - http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07…
18
@15 - Not only the GOP doesn't give a shit about the deficit but there is every reason to think that it is purposeful: "so we have the tax relief plan [...] that now provides a new kind—a fiscal straightjacket for Congress. And that's good for the taxpayers, and it's incredibly positive news if you're worried about a federal government that has been growing at a dramatic pace over the past eight years and it has been."
GWBush
GWBush
17
No, no, no... you're thinking about it all wrong.
The rest of the the nation's businesses should be required to live up to the same pre-pension investment standards as the USPS.
What's good for the gander...
The rest of the the nation's businesses should be required to live up to the same pre-pension investment standards as the USPS.
What's good for the gander...
15
@14: government spending has grown at a much reduced rate under obama. untold scores of government workers at all levels are unemployed since 2008.
so we did cut spending. can we raise revenue now?
or doesn't the GOP actually give a shit about the deficit?
so we did cut spending. can we raise revenue now?
or doesn't the GOP actually give a shit about the deficit?
14
There are many ways to starve the beast.
"John Anderson tells us that first we've got to reduce spending before we can reduce taxes. Well, if you've got a kid that's extravagant, you can lecture him all you want to about his extravagance. Or you can cut his allowance and achieve the same end much quicker."
"John Anderson tells us that first we've got to reduce spending before we can reduce taxes. Well, if you've got a kid that's extravagant, you can lecture him all you want to about his extravagance. Or you can cut his allowance and achieve the same end much quicker."
13
@11, mail the package themselves HOW, exactly? Pitney Bowes makes postage meters. Unless you believe that putting the stamp on is what causes the package to lift up off the counter and magically fly thousands of miles away, you're not saying anything here.
12
twist boner's nuts until the teatards repeal this absurd pre-payment for pensions. make it a condition of this grand bargain fiscal cliff lame duck session bullshit.
then pull his nuts off and stuff them up his drunk ass just because he sucks.
then pull his nuts off and stuff them up his drunk ass just because he sucks.
11
Close the USPS and work a deal with Pitney Bowes to offer machines so people can mail packages themselves.
9
Funny that Tea Partiers aren't up-in-arms over what's being done to a Constitutionally-mandated government service (Constitution 1:7), and one set up without regard to whether it operate at a loss or no.
8
@3 is right on too. The populist outrage that would defund the USPS would be a self-inflicted wound to rural areas. Cheap delivery of messages is too important and too powerful a concept to give up on, at least, until the government gets high speed internet access to everyone and we can use email instead.
7
tried to support usps with my xmas packages this year. the hours are so bad that i could never make it b/c i have to work full time regular hours. fedex is open until 11 pm.
6
What @4 said. Plus they get zero tax dollars, so all this ridiculous pension prepayment nonsense is supposed to be paid for out of their steadily dwindling revenues.
5
Everyone is right here, Fnarf especially. There is no financial loss on the part of USPS. This crisis--as with the current fiscal cliff nonsense--is totally manufactured.
4
What's wrong with USPS is that they are being murdered by Republicans. The trouble they are experiencing is entirely caused by the absurd decades-in-advance pension investment scheme, which no private company has ever been required to do, but which Congress has saddled the post office in a deliberate attempt to destroy it.
3
I would rather fix USPS. Give it more money and address whatever it's problems are and set it up with a plan of action for the next 15 years. Fixing things is easy, repairing things while under attack is hard.
1
Unintended consequence: The rural people will then complain about how bad the government is at providing services, and use it to justify more cuts, and privatization.
Fuck 'em, let the USPS shut down every rural P.O. and let the rural hicks cope. I know, federal law prohibits that. But it would be a nice stick to the eye of the rural people.
Fuck 'em, let the USPS shut down every rural P.O. and let the rural hicks cope. I know, federal law prohibits that. But it would be a nice stick to the eye of the rural people.
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