Latest Proposal to Kill Post Office Ignores Real Causes of Its Financial Crisis

[marmar]

from OnTheCommons.org:


Latest Proposal to Kill Post Office Ignores Real Causes of Its Financial Crisis
Peter Orszag, Obama's former OMB director, stands to benefit from privatization of U.S. mail

July 26, 2012 | by David Morris


If chutzpah can be defined as “killing your parents then throwing yourself on the mercy of the court because you’re an orphan” then Peter Orszag is the poster child for chutzpah. In his recent article in Bloomberg News he insists the best fix for the post office is to take it private.

Where does the chutzpah come from? Orszag was Director of the Office of Management Budget (OMB), an agency that played a key role in crippling the USPS with a manufactured financial crisis.

Here’s the back-story. In 1970, after almost two centuries, the Post Office was transformed from a Cabinet agency to the quasi-independent US Postal Service (USPS). In keeping with its new status, Congress eventually moved its finances off budget. Yet, as I’ve discussed before on OTC, the OMB and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) ignored Congress and continued to include the USPS in the unified budget, the budget they use for “scoring” legislation to estimate its impact on the deficit.

Fast forward to 2001. The Government Accountability Office put the Postal Service on its list of “high-risk” programs because of rising financial pressures resulting from exploding demand from both the residential and commercial sectors. Then in 2002 the anxiety level fell dramatically when the Office of Personnel Management found the Postal Service had been significantly overpaying into its retirement fund. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://onthecommons.org/magazine/latest-proposal-kill-post-office-ignores-real-causes-its-financial-crisis

[byeya]

1. The US Postal Service has performed very well since the days of

Benjamin Franklin. It should be put back into the cabinent because it's a national imperitive that the mail be delivered safely and on time.
Capialism won't guarantee this, it'll only guarantee profits for the owner.
Congress should require FedEx, for instance, to visit every home and business in the country every day to either deliver something or see if there's something to be shipped. FedEx wouldn't last long I don't think.