Will Congress let the Postal Service make the tough calls?

[Draggingtree]

Dallas Morning News:

 

Will Congress let the Postal Service make the tough calls?

 

Mitchell Schnurman The Dallas Morning News

mschnurman@dallasnews.com

Published: 22 September 2012 02:34 PM

 

The U.S. Postal Service needs a major restructuring, something akin to the painful makeover at American Airlines. The big difference is that the plan hinges on the approval of Congress, not a bankruptcy judge, and you know what happens to change in Washington.

The Postal Service, the second-largest employer in the nation, represents some of the best of big government and some of the worst.

It’s been self-funded since 1971, paying for operations by selling postage and services, not taking taxpayer money. More than half a million career employees, including 40,000 in Texas, earn good wages and great benefits, and they’ve made striking gains in productivity. Yet since 2007, the Postal Service has lost $37 billion and owes huge sums to future retirees and the Treasury.

The agency often says it wants to operate more like a business, and outsiders have long called for it to be privatized. But if the Postal Service actually went all in on that notion, its next move would be

[Valin]

@Draggingtree

 

I've got a buddy who works for the USPS (oh the horror stories he tells) we'll probably have lunch today. I'll ask him.

[quantim]

Ah, the fox guarding the henhouse or nuts running the asylum?

 

Nothing like government deciding goverment!