"'Est, quod est!' ("It is what it is!") Motley Monk," the Stoic philosophers would say, "Get with the program."
Remember when the last postage increase was going to put the United States Postal Service (USPS) on "a more solid financial footing"?
No one should disagree that a postal service is needed, but most everyone would likely disagree that what's being provided today is a "service." What's currently being provided resembles more the Internal Revenue "Service" or the Department of Motor Vehicle's "service." Were any of those so-called governmental "services" run as a business, they'd have already been shut via the expressway provided by Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
But, none of them have been and each is continuously thrown a new "life line" by taxpayers through the generosity of their elected representatives. Perhaps this helps to explain why the USPS no longer prints the price of a first-class stamp on a first-class stamp!
Consider the new USPS five-year plan which promises to place the USPS in a sound financial position. Yet, what the plan is represents nothing new, dusting off and reiterating ideas that USPS offered on previous occasions when USPS faced similar catastrophic financial peril.
There will be reductions in the workforce, the postal network will be consolidated, Saturday delivery will be eliminated.
Heard any of this before?
Interestingly, however, this new plan does include one new item: It eliminates the required retiree healthcare benefit.
All at the cost of raising the price/first-class stamp to 50 cents.
According to CATO Institute analyst, Tad DeHaven, the plan's "focus should be on completely transitioning the USPS from a government-run business to a privately-run business (or perhaps businesses)." DeHaven is no neophyte in this battle, having previously reported how foreign governments have already achieved this outcome and are reaping the benefits.
DeHaven believes the central issue in this battle is the power various stakeholders, who---for good reason, based on a wealth of historical precedent, The Motley Monk would add---believe Congress will ultimately come to the aid of USPS with yet another a taxpayer bailout.
Want to bet that the American Postal Workers' Union is one of those special interests?
Check out their webpage.
Let the discussion begin...
To read Tad DeHaven's post, click on the following link:
http://townhall.com/columnists/taddehaven/2012/02/27/postal_service_stuck_with_govt_biz_model/page/full/
To learn about the American Postal Workers Union, click on the following link:
http://www.apwu.org/index2.htm
The powers that be in DC talk, talk, talk...
ReplyDelete-It's easier to threaten cuts to Social Security and the Defense Department.
-It's easier to lie about Universal Healthcare that is free.
-It is easier to support misguided, pseudo-intellectuals, posing as activists in OWS.
-It is easier to go after the 1%, big business, wall street, big banks, big oil... as long as it smacks of class warfare.
In the meantime:
Let the Post Office was BILLIONS over DECADES. As long as the post office employes unionist who vote Democratic, no need to rush into any real change.
Let crooks manipulate Medicare with fraud schemes - just keep saying that all new spending programs will eliminate the fraud.
Let politicians keep giving themselves and their federal and state minions, annual pay increases and fat pensions.
Keep funding 'essential' programs like National Public Radio, the National Endowment for the Arts, AMTRAK, the Dept of Energy, the HSA.
So, in DC they would say:
Why should anyone care about a 45cent stamp? It does more than most government programs?