Postal Service Fast Tracked to Obsolescence

Not enough people are using the U.S. Postal Service so naturally they increase the price of a stamp for the seventh time in a decade. At the going rate expect another increase to be announced around the fall of 2011.

The U.S. Postal Service has proposed increasing the price of a first-class stamp by another 2 cents in the face of slumping mail volume.

If approved by regulators, the increase to 46 cents for a standard letter would go into effect Jan. 2 and be the seventh increase in a decade. As of Jan. 7, 2001, the cost of a stamp was 34 cents.

The Postal Service said it has faced "plummeting mail volume traced to the recession and increased use of the Internet," resulting in a projected deficit of nearly $7 billion for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. The proposed increases would raise about $2.3 billion for the first nine months of calendar 2011.

In order to compete, decreasing the price of stamps is the obvious solution.

I know, crazy thinking on my part.

Postal Service Posts $3.8 Billion Loss

That's the good news. The projections for 2010 show the loss could be double that, up to $7.6 billion. You have to love government efficiency.

The U.S. Postal Service reported a $3.8 billion net loss for its fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, as some $6 billion in cost savings were not enough to keep pace with plunging mail volumes.

But don't worry, people. If this was a private business they would be trying to either figure out how to become profitable or they would be filing for bankruptcy, but since they have an inexhaustible source of money--your tax dollars--they will continue on. In fact, Congress passed legislation which allowed them to fudge the numbers just a little bit.

The loss would have been worse except for legislation which allowed the agency to postpone the recognition of billions of dollars in prefunded retiree health benefit payments.

Once again we see the adverse impact of union retirement plans on government agencies at all levels from city and county all the way up to the federal level. It isn't just GM that has all of these sweetheart retirement packages rammed down the throats of taxpayers, although to my knowledge GM is the first wholly privately-owned business that was able to use taxpayer money to fund their packages.

The CFO of the Postal Service tried to put his best spin on it.

The agency cut 115 million work hours in 2009 to match the reduced mail volume. "That's the equivalent of 65,000 full-time employees," Corbett said.

They didn't lay anybody off, mind you, they just cut their hours, which means all of the people stay on the roles adding to the debt being racked up in this retirement plan that is driving them into the ground. I'm sure this shows up somewhere in the White House's fantasy of "saved or created" jobs.

Amtrak loses $476 million.

Medicare suffers $60 billion a year in losses due to fraud.

A Social Security program which nobody can seem to agree on when it will run out of money, they just all agree it will.

Hell, they couldn't even manage a cafeteria.

This is definitely the guys I want running my healthcare.

Great News: Post Office Going Broke

Let me guess. Another bailout needed? Maybe since Obama is so damn popular they can put his face on all the stamps sold and voila, problem solved.

The U.S. Postal Service is going broke.

Postmaster General John Potter told the House that the post office may run out of money by the end of the year if it does not get aid.

He said that the post office is "facing losses of historic proportion. Our situation is critical."

The office simply cannot pay all its bills.

The postmaster said he will pay all the salaries, but that other bills might just have to wait. He also asked that mail delivery drop to five days per week.

Maybe Obama's volunteer army can help deliver the mail.