Thanks To Congressional Incompetence, Saturday Mail Delivery Is History

[ProSense]

Thanks To Congressional Incompetence, Saturday Mail Delivery Is History

By Annie-Rose Strasser

The U.S. Postal Service announced on Wednesday that it will discontinue first class Saturday mail delivery, marking another milestone in the decline of the once-ubiquitous government service....Under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, Congress has for years forced the USPS to pre-fund 75 years’ worth of pensions for its employees, a requirement not made of any other public or private institution. That means that the Postal Service is footing the bill for employees it hasn’t even hired yet.

The USPS doesn’t actually receive money from the government, but still needs Congressional approval to make any changes to its structure. An analysis in July showed that the USPS, without its pension requirement, would have a $1.5 billion surplus.

But Congress has repeatedly failed to address the issue. Last year, the Postal Service defaulted on a pension fund payment for the first — and then second — time in its history, and political infighting stopped Congress from bringing any remedy to the floor.

Postal access is, ultimately, a rights issue for rural Americans; since they live in areas where internet coverage is inconsistent, post office closures and slowed-down delivery can mean big limitations on communication. A lack of access to postal services can lead to a growth in economic inequality. The new rules for Saturday delivery, set to take effect on August 1, 2013, will continue delivery of packages, but discontinue basic first-class mail.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/02/06/1547551/postal-service-saturday-delivery/

[Angry Dragon]

1. Congress is full of crapsters

[Agnosticsherbet]

2. It is not incompetence, but Conservative Conspiracy...

to destroy the APWU and foist their ideological fantasy that private enterprise is always superior upon the public.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Issa might finally be getting it

But I don't hold my breath.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. Hmmm. Rural voters cutting their own fucking throat again by voting for Repigs.

If you are a rural DUer, look the other way because I know not ALL rural voters are repig voting idiots. Just the majority.

I'm so sick of the rural "lift yourself up by the boot-straps" bullshit I have to hear from my rural in-laws - all while they drive on roads they could NEVER afford without federal subsidies, schools they can never afford without federal grants and busing systems they could never afford without federal subsidies.

My (liberal) father-in-law drove for a federally funded bus company that picked up kids in rural down-state Illinois. He described a bunch of repigs displaying anti-Obama-socialist yard signs while they put their kids on a bus paid for by federal money then waddled back to their 3/4 acre lot with a horse on it acting like they are taming the wild west.

[HubertHeaver]

5. Your rural in-laws must be very young.

I am old enough to remember the mud roads of rural Illinois. In the spring time they were impassable, the summer and fall, dusty. Winter depended on the year and what crops had been grown in the adjacent fields.