60 House Bills to Name Post Offices, Zero To Fix Mail Service

[Parkbandit]

In the 18 months the 112 th Congress has been sworn in, the House has introduced 60 bills torename post offices. (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/07/with-no-debt-limit-vote-house-turns-to-naming-post-offices/) Thirty-eight have passed the House and 26 have become law. During those 18 months, the House has produced 151 laws, 17 percent of which have been to rename post offices, according to Congressional Democrats.
Not a single bill has come to the House floor aimed at reforming a Postal Service, which is bleeding billions of dollars because of Congressional mandates.
Today the United States Postal Service will default on a Congressional mandate to pay $5.5 billion to "prefund" health benefits for future retirees. On Friday, House of Representatives will leave town for a five week summer vacation. There is no plan to take up postal reform before that summer recess.
The Postal Service has attempted to enact an array of cost-cutting measures (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/us-postal-service-implement-billion-cuts/story?id=15087380) to pull itself out of a $22.5 billion budget shortfall. Over the past five years USPS has cut more than 110,000 employees. The mail service, which takes no taxpayer money but is regulated by Congress, has announced plans to close or consolidate 230 mail processing centers, cutting 13,000 jobs and saving an estimated $1.2 billion annually.
The service attempted to close 3,700 post offices (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/uspostal-service-proposes-closing-3700-offices/story?id=14163878) under a plan announced last year, but after public outcry decided to cut operating hours (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/usps-to-cut-hours-not-close-post-offices/)to between two and six hours per day at 13,000 locations. USPS claims that move will save $500 million per year.
One of the largest cost-saving measures would be ending Saturday mail delivery (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/07/postal-service-pushes-to-end-saturday-delivery/) , a move the Postal Service says will save $3.1 billion a year. But USPS can't cut delivery without Congressional approval, and partisan disagreements over whether Congress should take control of USPS's operations until it is solvent again or if it should leave the decision making to the postmaster general have halted any action on Capitol Hill.
USPS claims that if Congress does not act, the mail service will default not only on the $5.5 billion payment due today, but also on another $5.6 billion payment for future retiree's benefit due September 30.
The Postal Service has pleaded with Congress for years to end the requirement that it pre-fund its retiree's health benefits. But many lawmakers claim that because USPS has such a massive workforce - there are 614,000 Postal Service employees-if it does not pre-fund retirement benefits, it will not be able to pay them in the future.
And as long as these disagreements persist, it looks like naming post offices is the closest Congress will get to passing postal reform.

http://news.yahoo.com/60-house-bills-name-post-offices-zero-fix-144624099--abc-news-politics.html

17% of the laws that the House has passed were to rename Post Offices.

That's fucking awesome. Way to keep your eye on the ball...

[Gompers]

ROFL!

[Back]

The House is Republican majority, right?

[Tgo01]

If I were that postmaster general guy I would close each one of those that were renamed on purpose.

[Wrathbringer]

The postal service is failing because it costs more to operate than it takes in to pay for it, like most if not all government programs. However, if the government would get their hands out of every other facet of our lives, they'd be able to absorb that shortfall each year. As is, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security costs eat up the entirety of the federal tax revenue each year and everything else is financed via debt. Fact is, if nothing changes, the postal service will be defunct in the near future and the private sector will pick up that slack, creating jobs and improving the economy while freeing up tax dollars to be spent elsewhere.

[Parkbandit]

The postal service is failing because it costs more to operate than it takes in to pay for it, like most if not all government programs. However, if the government would get their hands out of every other facet of our lives, they'd be able to absorb that shortfall each year. As is, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security costs eat up the entirety of the federal tax revenue each year and everything else is financed via debt. Fact is, if nothing changes, the postal service will be defunct in the near future and the private sector will pick up that slack, creating jobs and improving the economy while freeing up tax dollars to be spent elsewhere.

Their labor costs are retardedly high. You practically have to be caught killing someone to lose your job there.

My uncle has worked for them for 20 years. He's been arrested for DUIs 3 times and has shown up for work so drunk they had to call a taxi to take him home on multiple occasions.

In the real world, he would have been fired YEARS ago. In the USPO world, he's rewarded with a job/benefits.

[Deathravin]

What's killing the Postal Service is the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/109/hr6407). Forcing them to pay 5.5 Billion dollars a year for the following 10 years to pre-fund its health and retirement benefits for a ridiculous ~20 years.

3802

[Tgo01]

What's killing the Postal Service is the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/109/hr6407). Forcing them to pay 5.5 Billion dollars a year for the following 10 years to pre-fund its health and retirement benefits for a ridiculous ~20 years.

3802

Unless I'm misreading that graph there it looks like the prefunding thing is just part of their problem, they are losing money even without having to pay into that fund. Why are some people focusing on the retirement thing and ignoring the fact that the USPS is losing money due to less people using the mail service? Is the USPS the latest in the Democrat Vs Republican battle? If the USPS fails does it make Obama/Democrats look bad therefore Democrats have to try to pin the blame on a 2006 bill when Republicans were in control?

[Atlanteax]

What's killing the Postal Service is the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/109/hr6407). Forcing them to pay 5.5 Billion dollars a year for the following 10 years to pre-fund its health and retirement benefits for a ridiculous ~20 years.3802

The USPS is damned because of its union, and absurd government-related job security enables laziness as PB described (and we see it all the time in your local state's SoS offices when it comes to autos).

So the union funnels campaign contributions to lawmakers (likely mostly Dems) ... and lawmakers return the favor with the absurd job security and excess pay (at a level that would make CEOs jealous, in relative terms).

Perfect example of why public employee unions are horrible in practice (and increases the level of hostility towards private sector unions). UAW was 'private sector' but is also a good example of how much 'wrong' a large and powerful union can do.

The saddest part is that both sides (the USPS union and their lawmakers) fully believe that there is yet more $$ waiting for them at the end of the rainbow.

[Latrinsorm]

I don't understand the union complaints. In the article that PB posted and which I can therefore only assume is 100% accurate, we learn...

"Over the past five years USPS has cut more than 110,000 employees."
"...there are 614,000 Postal Service employees..."

That's a huge reduction in employees, no? Surely 110,000 people weren't practically caught killing someone? Aren't Deathravin's or Wrathbringer's explanations a lot more coherent with the facts presented?

[Parkbandit]

Terminating current employees doesn't help with their current legacy cost shortfalls.

The Ponzi Scheme is simply catching up to reality.

As far as employment in the USPS goes.. I have only my uncle's situation to base my opinion upon. In a real company, he would have been fired 12 years ago when he was sent home the first time for being shit faced at work.

[Latrinsorm]

I don't know man, do you really want to place more weight on 1 (drunk!) person's anecdote than a 17% workforce reduction, plus who knows how many retires?

[Parkbandit]

I don't know man, do you really want to place more weight on 1 (drunk!) person's anecdote than a 17% workforce reduction, plus who knows how many retires?

I would discuss the gigantic difference between being fired for something you did and being fired for business reasons.. but we both know you won't understand.

So I won't bother.

[TheEschaton]

I dunno, I know lawyers who show up to work coked up 4 days out of 6 to work, sleep in their offices, and drink their lunch. and they work for the largest firms in the world.

Hell, I'm 3 years out of law school, and those people are well on their way on the partner track.

[Tgo01]

Yeah but lawyers aren't human, moot point.

[Atlanteax]

Yeah but lawyers aren't human, moot point.

They're demons in human skin.

[Warriorbird]

A large part of the postal service's issues were those layoffs needed to happen along time ago. The organization should have A. been forced to deal with junk mail more effectively B. maybe been transitioned into something like defeating spam email C. analyzed to find how to keep competitive and relevant.

This is everybody's fault, Democratic and Republican, because the Postal Service is not actually an executive agency. They work directly for Congress. Both parties have had control and could have achieved change in the period since the decline began in the late 90s.

[Parkbandit]

A large part of the postal service's issues were those layoffs needed to happen along time ago. The organization should have A. been forced to deal with junk mail more effectively B. maybe been transitioned into something like defeating spam email C. analyzed to find how to keep competitive and relevant.

This is everybody's fault, Democratic and Republican, because the Postal Service is not actually an executive agency. They work directly for Congress. Both parties have had control and could have achieved change in the period since the decline began in the late 90s.

It's politically easier to kick the can down the street and have someone else deal with the tough choices.

[Kembal]

Unless I'm misreading that graph there it looks like the prefunding thing is just part of their problem, they are losing money even without having to pay into that fund. Why are some people focusing on the retirement thing and ignoring the fact that the USPS is losing money due to less people using the mail service? Is the USPS the latest in the Democrat Vs Republican battle? If the USPS fails does it make Obama/Democrats look bad therefore Democrats have to try to pin the blame on a 2006 bill when Republicans were in control?

If the cash from pre-funding were returned, then there would be time to study what kind of changes needed to be made. Most postal services in other countries do more than just mail, for example.

The union doesn't even want the pre-funding. It seems fairly easy to fix that part and then study reform, but the House doesn't want to do that.

[Fallen]

If the cash from pre-funding were returned, then there would be time to study what kind of changes needed to be made. Most postal services in other countries do more than just mail, for example.

The union doesn't even want the pre-funding. It seems fairly easy to fix that part and then study reform, but the House doesn't want to do that.

What other responsibilities do Postal workers assume in other countries?

[Kembal]

What other responsibilities do Postal workers assume in other countries?

Post offices in other countries sell insurance, cell phones, banking services (such as opening savings accounts), and are a one stop shop for various government applications. (right now, the US Postal Service only does one extra thing, which is handle new passport applications)

[Tgo01]

Just privatize the post office already.