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| 2009 Political Cartoon Evidences Failure USPS Problems Have Continued |
The Post Office desperately wants to modernize. Internal reorganization memos obtained by the Washington Post paint a bleak picture. "The Postal Service is facing dire economic challenges that threaten its very existence." The same could be said of the entire country. In view of its financial imbalance, the Post Office has realized that it needs to -- GASP! -- downsize.
In the past four years, this bloated bureaucracy has lost $20 billion. It now wants to close 3,700 post offices and hundreds of mail processing facilities. It wants to reform its pension and healthcare benefits. And it needs to cut 120,000 workers.
But it can't. Why not? Because of Big Labor and collective bargaining rights. The Postal Service is now begging Congress to step in. In its conclusion, the memo states:
"If the Postal Service was a private sector business, it would have filed for bankruptcy and utilized the reorganization process to restructure its labor agreements to reflect the new financial reality. Because this option is not available to the Postal Service, we believe that this extraordinary request is a key to securing our future…"
One of the biggest problems confronting the Postal Service is technology. Mail volume is down as more people use e-mail and pay bills online. Big Government bureaucracies do not adapt well. They generally stifle innovation and resist change.
Liberals will argue that the Post Office is fine -- it just has a little revenue problem and should raise rates. (Maybe Obama will give it another bailout.) But raising rates will only drive more people away, resulting in less revenue, just like raising taxes also changes personal behavior.
The Post Office's predicament is an example of what is confronting the country -- the need to cut spending and reform entitlements. And like Governor Walker in Wisconsin and other governors across the country, Democrats and Republicans alike, the Post Office sees reining in Big Labor as a key to future economic success.
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Gary Bauer is is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families
Tags: Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Famiies, Debt, USPO, USPS. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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