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Return to Article: White House, Hill staff seeking compromise on postal bill

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  I think some of your readers need to wake up. If they want to make such negative comments, at least they should educate themselves on some of the issues. A) We have not taken any money from the government in the form of subsidies since the early 1980's. We are self reliant. B) Not only does the postal service deliver to every address in the nation, every day, it's still the cheapest. C)It adds 1.8 million addresses every year, which equates to higher operating expenses. D)The big boys in government want us to operate like a business, but leave us with laws that were created over 30 years ago to operate by. (Yes, we operate under LAWS not policies or business models) E)It takes almost one year to get an increase in rates to cover expenses.(Expenses they gladly throw our way which are unrelated to what we do) If they left us to operate like a real business, we would benefit the public and not go through this every three years. This is only the tip of the iceburg. Go ahead and attempt privatization. What company will deliver your mail to your house every day? No one. You will have to go to a central location to pick it up yourselves, or pay a premium for it. Try mailing anything with these companies, and you'll be paying by zones. (You know; like sending anything via UPS or FEDEX)If you want things to run better, get on the big boys in the congress and senate to get off their collective rears and get things moving. Once it's gone, you'll never get it back.

  THomas M Severino Posted June 15, 2005 7:01 AM
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  "taxpayer, DOD" needs to get real. If he thinks privatized mail will be cheaper, he needs to check into a few things.

  1. If the Postal Service has to subsidize first class mail with junk mail to keep their costs low, so will a private company.

  2. You can have your name put on a "no mail" list that will eliminate most, if not all, of your junk mail. This isn't something new, it's been in existance for decades.

  3. Start using FedEx for all your first class mail. It'll get there in about the same rate of time and will only cost $11+/pound vs $0.37/ounce.

  GovExec.com reader Posted February 23, 2005 2:31 PM
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  If VP's comments are accurate I think we should outsource the functions to India - seems that it would be cheaper to fly the mail there for sorting and then fly it back because the 54K sorter probably only costs 15K in India and the flight doesn't cost 40K if we use India air! It probably is cheaper, faster and better to fly it to Mexico or Canada where it will happen cheaper.

  I think we should get rid of the post office and privatize mail delivery. That way we would stop first class mail from subsidizing junk mail and I would not waste my time throwing away 90% of the junk I receive and filling the landfill with waste paper from junk mail that first class mail is paying for!

  taxpayer Posted February 23, 2005 6:53 AM
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  Before worrying about where the money is coming from to cover additional costs, maybe they ought to look at where all the money is being spent and if sufficient justification exists. Most taxpayers don't realize how much the postal system pays out to their employees (some with little or no education). A mail sorter for example can make around $54K a year. Also unlike most federal employees, postal employees pay little if any toward their health care programs. We all know health care premiums have increased by double digits in the last 7-10 years so I'm sure the postal system is suffering since they haven't tried to pass the increase on to their employees. Their only option is to pass it onto the taxpayers. Like most federal agencies they also have to absorb the cost of living increases alloted to their overpaid employees. So now they want to pass this increase on to the taxpayers as well. Why don't we set postal rates high enough to pay for all federal agencies inflation issues? Can you imagine a VA hospital telling the veterans (the consumer) we had to increase your cost due to our deficit. I think the postal system needs to start reassessing their program and stop overspending. Two things to start with is pay and benefits. Also I'd wager a bet that they (like most federal agencies) are too top heavy in management so this is another area to cut back. Since Bush likes contracting out, how about contracting out some of the work? Given the choice I'd bet that the employees would rather pay their fair share of their health program than lose their jobs. I don't think the postal employees will ever need to worry about their jobs being contracted out since the postal system is another method of collecting taxes and the government wouldn't ever want this cash cow put to bed. Say, makes you wonder, does a postal money problem really exist or is this just another sneaky way for Bush to collect taxes?

  GovExec.com reader Posted February 22, 2005 7:42 AM