US Postal Service warns it could default.

[lonestarnot]

Tags: benefits trust, mail service, us postal serviceThe US Postal Service warned on Friday that it could default on payments it owes the federal government, just days after the US government itself narrowly averted a default.

The government's mail service said it lost $3.1 billion in the period from April to June, blaming "the anemic state of the economy" and the growing popularity of electronic communications over old-fashioned letters.

As a result of its mounting losses, the US Postal Service said it would not be able to make a legally required $5.5 billion payment in September to a health-benefits trust fund.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/05/us-postal-service-warns-it-could-default/

___________________________

Welp no wonder. It's run by pugs. They need a bonus for Christmas. Send 'em a bailout. pigliCONS want that privitized before September in time for those bonuses.

[gristy]

1. Default? Well, then, the USPS must be privatized. It's the only solution.

:sarcasm:

[Travis_0004]

2. Why doesn't the post office cut back its delivery schedule?

Some have suggested 5 days a week, or even deliver every other day. 1/2 the people get mail MWF, the other half gets the mail Tu,Th, Sat.

If implemented, there is no need to fire anybody, just don't replace people as they quit/retire.

The fact is, email and other technology is here to stay, and I don't think mail delivery 6 days a week is necessary.

[TBF]

4. They bring me junk mail, catalogs, and bills (at least the ones I don't get electronically).

Once a week would be fine for me.

[lonestarnot]

5. me too.

[grasswire]

6. do you know there used to be two deliveries daily?

Morning and afternoon.

When I was out and about yesterday riding the city bus I noticed all the mail carriers out walking their routes, and I thought about how America has had such good systems since the great depression. Mail service, roads, schools, airports, food delivery, so many services. So much progress. The Republicans have ruined it all. They have freaking destroyed the quality of daily life. Everything is topsy-turvy, and citizens are suffering.

[Travis_0004]

10. And times were different then

There was no email. Some people didn't have phones, and long distance calls were expensive. Even ways of getting infromation such as television was new, and not extremely common.

Times change, and we need to keep up with changing times.

Are you telling me that if you only get the mail 3 times a week, your quality of life will be destroyed?

What are you having delivered to your house that you must have that day, and delaying it 24 hours will destroy your qualify of life?

[grasswire]

11. had your coffee yet?

Touchy this morning much?

Geez.

[Blues Heron]

12. netflix dvds

[Chimichurri]

8. because that must be approved by Congress and it keeps getting blocked. There is

also money the post office is forced to pay to the treasury every year which is just sitting there. Congress is also the one who gets to let USPS use it or not. So far, they have not let them go near it.

This is yet another ploy to privatize a perfectly functioning and fixable entity.

[NYC_SKP]

3. 98% of my mail is wasted paper, and there's no way to stop it.

They've pulled every goddam postal box throughout the city, one has to go to one of the few remaining post offices (they've closed the smaller ones) to mail a frakkin letter.

Fuck!

[Strelnikov_]

7. GOP created artificial crisis

pa28 presents the case in the following post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4949703&mesg_id=4949746

++++

In 2006 the USPS was suddenly required to pre-pay future health benefits into a government trust fund and now they need to access some of the 60 Billion in audited overpays they've made. They need a change in the law as well as their own money back and the GOP, of course, refuses to cooperate.

Just another page in their playbook. Fabricate a financial crisis and then use it as a variation in their "america is broke" story line which, of course, will lead to a discussion on privatization.

Here is some additional backround.

http://federaldaily.com/articles/2011/05/17/usps-billions-in-benefits-overpayments.aspx

++++

And a follow up link by PoliticAverse:

http://www.postalnewsblog.com/2009/03/26/the-postal-ponzi-scheme/

++++

[lonestarnot]

9. Yeah, infiltrated by baggers at the top. Way to manage baggers!

[Brigid]

13. I get nothing but junk mail anyway.

And I'm getting rid of my landline when I move because all I get on it is telemarketing calls. Times are changing. Kind of sad, though -- when Benjamin Franklin created the postal service back before the Revolution, there was nothing else like it in the world.

[kestrel91316]

14. I would be perfectly ok with them cutting out Saturday delivery of mail

to save money. Why they don't do this, I don't know. And I own a business, but because nobody I mail stuff to does business on Saturday anyway (government, corporate suppliers, banks, etc) it really would have zero impact on me.