Postal officials have recommended that Saturday deliveries be curtailed, thereby reducing the annual losses by approximately $2 billion. And We the People can use all the savings or loss reductions we can get from government these days. Every little bit helps the cause, in other words.
So what's going to happen? Probably nothing. Nothing at all.
It's likely to continue to be politics and business as usual in Washington, the land where OPM reigns and MOM gets the bill eventually.
Of course, saving $2 billion compared to trillions of dollars isn't a big deal, I guess, but it does exemplify the thinking of our political class. They don't think past the next election while the financial condition of our government continues to deteriorate with no end in sight.
Saturday Postal Pullback in Limbo has the details:
"Congress is poised to tell the Postal Service it must continue all Saturday mail services, but the message hasn't been delivered just yet.
The six-day-a-week service mandate, wrapped into a government spending bill on remaining fiscal 2013 spending, is the same one Congress has had for the past 30 years. The House has already passed the provision. The Senate is expected to follow suit as early as Tuesday.
But this time the message is being delivered as the Postal Service looks to stem mounting losses that last year neared $16 billion, and a few Senate Republicans are pushing for a change to the spending bill that they say would give the Post Office the leeway it wants.
"Congress will be hamstringing the Postal Service,
hastening its demise and probably adding additional financial burdens to U.S.
taxpayers" if it requires six-day-a-week service, said Sen. Bob
Corker (R., Tenn.). Mr. Corker, along with Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), has
offered an amendment to drop the six-day service requirement.
As Congress debates six-day mail service, the Postal
Service is advancing plans to pare Saturday deliveries.
The Postal Service, which operates as an independent government agency but is also subject to the oversight of Congress, earlier this year said it would in August end most weekend deliveries but still ship packages. The move could save as much as $2 billion a year at an agency that lost $15.9 billion last year, causing it to tap out its credit line from the U.S. Treasury. The losses are expected to continue unless Congress allows changes to retiree obligations and health-care expenses, in addition to limiting Saturday service. . . .
Ruth Goldway, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission that oversees postal operations, said the provision in the spending bill would make it hard for the Post Office to implement the Saturday cuts.
"With language in the appropriation bill for over 30 years, the consensus is that the Postal Service must deliver mail on Saturdays," Ms. Goldway said. "If the language stays, I'd be surprised if that consensus changes."
The Postal Service, meanwhile, said it continues to plan for a cutback in services, setting up a possible showdown with Congress later this year. The Postal Service "will continue its planning for the August implementation of the new delivery schedule, while Congress debates," spokesman Dave Partenheimer said Friday."
Summing Up
Talk's cheap. So with the government knows best gang, it's always a good idea to watch what they do and not pay much attention to what they say.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, "What you DO speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you SAY."
So which will it be from the Congress, talk or action? Sadly, it looks like more government cheap talk to me.
Because for a long time now, the government talkers have been winning by a landslide.
And as a result, the future well being of our kids and grandkids remains in jeopardy.
We need some doers.
That's my take.
Thanks. Bob.
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