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| Economy |
| Post Office to get hit with "high risk" rating as business keeps falling |
| 2009-07-29 |
| The United States Postal Service will get some bad but unsurprising news today. The Government Accountability Office is expected to add it to its list of "high risk" government operations. The GAO publishes a biennial list of high risk agencies, which they define as having "significant management challenges." It put out a list in January but is apparently updating it with the addition of the USPS in an effort to spur Congress to do something substantial to help keep it solvent. The GAO currently has a list of 30 high risk federal programs, policies and operations it says are "vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement or in need of sweeping transformation." USPS has been suffering financially for a while now, losing $2.8 billion in 2008 thanks to competition from FedEx and UPS and the fact that fewer people are sending mail. The move by GAO comes as the USPS struggles to come up with billions of dollars it is required to put into its retiree health care fund and it could default when payment is due on Sept. 30. Postmaster General John Potter warned Congress in March that the postal service could run out of funds completely this year and asked to cut back mail delivery to five days per week as a cost saving measure. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 Maybe have rural stamps that take into account the extra costs of delivering to low density areas? |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2009-07-29 13:34 |
| #7 We are in a rural area. Our town has 2 gas stations and both are 10 cents more than any surrounding station. These two competitors know they can make more money together. The post office is the only thing which keeps ups from really sticking it to us. I like paper transactions. I don't like these hackable companies having any access to automatically withdraw from my bank account. Paper records do not change. Besides, its one of the things the government is actually charged to provide. If anything people should point at this and say, "You cannot run a business charged to run in the constitution, and you want to run healthcare? Bullshit." |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2009-07-29 12:43 |
| #6 cannot email a package..closing down is not an option and ups/fed ex are pretty exp compared. Stamp prices need to be raised...I mean a stamp cost 10 cent in 1850..today's price has not kept up with inflation Del does not need to be 6 days a week -- but the service is still needed.. |
| Posted by: Dan 2009-07-29 12:10 |
| #5 There are still people living in rural areas without efficient electronic support, terminating their access will effectively push them out of the system of commerce all together or force people into communities that have the access. The USPS has been and is charged with deliveries that commercial carriers wouldn't touch. There are still laws on the books that don't exist for electronic transactions that provide a degree of protection in legal standing and are found only in commerce via mail. So, you're just going to trade subsidies via paper mail with 'fees' to provide an alternative structure to cover those functions if you terminate the USPS. Rest assured, the pols will make it happen. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-07-29 10:02 |
| #4 Can't cut Post Office staffing - it would increase unemployment. Even as modest as the need is for their service the employees DO actually produce SOME value, which is more than can be said of a lot of government employees. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-07-29 08:37 |
| #3 Psst. Hey buddy, want to buy a roll of 37¢ first class stamps? Cheap! I read where the USPS might push a first class stamp of 50¢. But I still have most of the stamps I bought some years ago. My outgoing is now all email or e-pay, with the occasional package. The Postal Service is now the Junk Mail Service. Wouldn't bother me a bit if mail delivery was 3, 2 or even 1 days/week. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-07-29 08:03 |
| #2 Just might be time to recognize that the USPS has run its course. It had 250 years, bless them, but now they need to fold up the shop and shut down. Go to delivery five days a week. Then three. Eventually just close down. With e-bill paying, direct deposit of SS checks, e-mail instead of letters, etc., the only people who will miss them are the bulk mailers, and for them there's always spam. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2009-07-29 07:32 |
| #1 This news story is not complete without noting that per union contracts the Postal Service can't lay them off. I was very surprised when I learned that, and it explains a lot about the fix the Post Office is in. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-07-29 00:41 |