Post Office to Lose $238 Billion - Big Gov't Has No Business Sense

by Adam Bitely, NetRight Nation: In some rather believable news, the Postmaster General has announced that the Post Office could lose $238 Billion over the next decade.

According to the Washington Post, "The U.S. Postal Service estimates $238 billion in losses in the next 10 years if lawmakers, postal regulators and unions don't give the mail agency more flexibility in setting delivery schedules, price increases and labor costs."

Fiscal Conservatives and libertarians have long opined on how the Post Office was the perfect example of why Government does not know best when it comes to business sense. And now, even the Postmaster General, John E. Potter, is acknowledging the inefficiencies that are created by the Federal Government and Unions:

The postmaster general called for many of these changes last year but failed to convince lawmakers. This time he's armed with $4.8 million worth of outside studies that conclude that, without drastic changes, the mail agency will face even more staggering losses.

Three studies -- by Accenture, the Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey and Co. -- reviewed the Postal Service's books and presented 50 options for cuts and new services. The agency's business model is so poor, consultants concluded, that privatizing it is untenable.

And as for the Unions, here is what Potter has to say:

Officials will also seek greater flexibility in forthcoming union negotiations, including addressing ballooning health-care costs, Potter said.

He particularly wants Congress to reverse a 2006 law requiring the Postal Service to prepay its retiree health benefits, to the tune of $5 billion per year. No other federal agency or Fortune 500 company makes such payments, Potter said.

Maybe Congress will now wake up to the nonsensical funding that the Post Office receives. As the notion of postal delivery becomes more and more lost to the American people, we could finally see a reduction in the size of this Federal behemoth.

But the Post Office still has some ideas on how to become a force in the 21st Century. They have plans to launch a "hybrid" service that will deliver mail via e-mail. The details of the service have not been launched yet, but one wonders why the customer would need the Post Office to deliver an email for them.
The time for the Post Office to lose access to the Federal dollars it receives is now. It's time to stop throwing good money after bad.

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