... it's being ran as one.
If private business were to operate the way the USPS does, it would be in the same situation as the USPS. Going BROKE! One problem with the USPS is although it's a private business, it's business model is one of a government agency.
I've searched for a link I saw back sometime between 1998 and 2003 which gave a break down of the USPS Financials. There was one item that showed the USPS had bought hundreds of trailers, for their 18 wheeler transports, and these trailers had never been used, painted/decal-ed, or made ready for use. Hundreds of trailer just sitting on a parking lot and going to ruin. A waste of several million dollars.
That's only the tip of the Postal-berg.
"reduce costs in order to bring the institution back to fiscal solvency when the Postal Service goes into default to the Federal government"
I loved this little quote. 'BACK to fiscal solvency'????? This 'company lost $8.5 Billion last year (2010), it's going to lose at lest $8.3 Billion this year (2011) and projected to lose $8.5 Billion next year (2012). This 'company (USPS) hasn't been solvent for so long that they have no idea what the word means.
Issa introduces bill to ‘prevent bailout’ of Postal Service
Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the congressional oversight committee, introduced legislation on Thursday to significantly reform the United States Postal Service in order to prevent the need for a “taxpayer bailout.”
The legislation follows USPS’ announcement on Wednesday that it will no longer pay money into its Federal Employee Retirement System in order to cut costs.
Issa said that such a solution was not acceptable.
“The Postal Service lost $8.5 billion last year,” he said in a statement. “It is going to lose, at least, $8.3 billion this year. And it is projected to lose $8.5 billion the year after that. Congress can’t keep kicking the can down the road on out of control labor costs and excess infrastructure of USPS and needs to implement reforms that aren’t a multi-billion dollar taxpayer funded bailout.”
It would also create the Commission on Postal Reorganization, whose purpose would be to make recommendations to Congress on closures or consolidations with the goal of reducing USPS costs by $2 billion a year.
Benefits and salaries for Postal Service employees would be cut, putting them more on the level of what private sector employees receive for similar jobs. Oversight estimates that such measures will save $700 million dollars in the 2010 fiscal year, which ends in September.
Oversight estimates that the reforms will save the Postal Service $6 billion dollars a year when all of them have been enacted.
Among other things, the legislation will also permit USPS to move to five-day delivery of mail, and would alter the bargaining process between the Postal Service and the employee unions.
“We strongly oppose a provision in the bill that provides for an additional $10 billion in borrowing authority from the U.S. Treasury. The Postal Service does not need to incur additional debt — we need the money back that is already owed to us,” the statement said, referring to the surplus money paid into the FERS account. “We also strongly oppose sections of the bill that would create more government bureaucracy and slow our progress on streamlining our operations.”
USPS also reiterated suggestions it had made before, namely, that Congress allow it access to the surplus funds it has paid into FERS, an amount USPS estimates to be $6.9 billion, and that the Postal Service be exempted from pre-paying retiree health benefits.
“The Postal Service,” the statement warns, “is in danger of running out of cash as early as this October.”
NALC also took exceptional issue with the idea of reducing delivery to five days, something it has adamantly spoken out against.
NALC President Frederic Rolando called the bill “a draconian downsizing plan and a misguided and unjustifiable attack on hard-working postal employees who provide the most affordable and highest-quality mail service in the world.”
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