U.S. Postal Service Cuts Services to Avert Bankruptcy – Is it Enough to Stay Alive?

Speak the truth: Congress is using the USPS as a cash cow and issuing IOUs in the form of bonds. We should all object to this charade. It just adds to the national debt and the money is spent on the general budget. Our legislators must be called out on this gross mis-characterization. The problem has nothing to do with the USPS--the problem is us. We are allowing Congress to cheat without objecting. Raise a storm about this extremely serious miscarriage of our national fiscal trust. LPalmer

Drop Sat delivery. Re-negotiate labor contracts. If not, it is bye bye

Recommend cutting Saturday delivery now to save additional costs. What piece of important mail comes on a Saturday that can't wait until Monday?

The majority of 'mail' is advertising from Verizon, Comcast, realtors and any company that wants your money. Why the hell do we need pay people to deliver adds? If the post office wants their pensions let them charge those companies 5 to 10 times more to deliver their adds.

You know, we could end Saturday delivery and boost the cost of bulk mail. Who wants all that crap anyway? If we eliminated bulk mail I bet we could reduce staffing by close to 75% and still maintain a decent level of service.....

There's a surprise...

First of all, their services rather suck, so no big loss. And considering what they charge for a stamp, I pay all bills online, "FOR FREE!"

Furthermore, anyone who has ever bought a thing on Ebya already knows that their tracking system completely sucks! At least 50% of the time, they don't scan a package at every destination; therefore, the update will show your package stuck somewhere in Jerkwater USA, and then you simply get it when you get it...

Funny how UPS's tracking system works so well, yet USPS employees can't take the time to scan a package. It's a wonder they manage to function at all...

Oh; and today, when I needed to ship some X-Mas gifts, I discovered that the local office was only open from ten to eleven! Who the hell opens for an hour??? Not even worth getting out of bed for!

Save the postal service and trees . Cut off all junk mail !!

This is absolutely correct. The Postal Service is and has been destroyed from within. We have too many "management " positions making large salaries that are not needed. In addition, they still receive year end "bonuses" or as they are called now " pay for performance". The problem is that i am still waiting for them to perform. When money has to be saved the carriers are the ones who suffer. The office were i worked, the former postmaster even created jobs for some management postions.

LET'S PAY FOR WHAT THE REAL COST IS TO USE THE MAIL. STOP CONGRESS FROM GETTING ALL THE FEE MAIL ETC. WHICH I UNDERSTAND IS IN THE MILLIONS. SO LET FIND THE REAL COST AND PAY IT.

Congress requires that the USPS fund both the retirement program and the health plan at 100%. The average for the S&P 500 funding is 80%. Other federal employees is 41%; the military is 24%; and the some government bureau which requires the USPS to fund at 100% does not fund its plans at all.

Due to the usual government accounting standards, requirements and regulations, the USPS believes that they have over-funded the plans by $75 billion and they want it back. The amount of $75 billion is equal to a year’s income at the USPS.

The is not a current method to pay back over-payments. The only way the USPS can be paid back is by an act of Congress.

The money paid into these plans is invested in Treasury Notes, Bonds, and Bills – in other words, the federal government “borrows it.”

And then they spend it.

Should the $75 billion be paid back and the funding requirements be reduced, the USPS would be in better shape. If they were required to fund the plans at a lesser rate, they would be in better shape.

The big problem with returning the $75 billion to the USPS is, because of the rules Congress has created, giving the money back would increase the deficit by $75 billion. Over the years, the Federal Government has made the deficit look better by subtracting the funded pension and health plan money from the deficit numbers. Not many Congressman are willing to add numbers to the deficit right now.

The House postal oversight subcommittee approved H.R. 5746. The bill, which was introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) on July 15, would alter the methodology for allocating the Postal Service’s share of pension costs for employees whose careers spanned the former Post Office Department and the USPS which created the $75 billion in question. This is the first step in a long process to make the changes that the USPS wants.

The bill must be considered by the full Oversight and Government Reform Committee before it can be voted on in the House.

H.R. 5746 directs Office of Personnel Management to transfer any surplus to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund. This transfer of funds would alleviate a major source of the Postal Service’s recent economic problems. The funding of 100% of future retiree health care benefits, as required by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, costs the USPS more than $5 billion annually.

Why does the USPS insist on under-charging for the price of a stamp? It's like they want to run at a loss and lay off employees. To deliver a letter from any address in LA to any address in New York for only $0.44 is a screaming bargain. No private company could come close to that. FedEx charges around $17.00 to deliver a letter for about the same length of delivery time.

Bust the union, increase the employee's share in health cost, retirement, stop Sat delivery, and make the cost of a stamp .50 cents. That's it,easy. Anymore problem's u want me to solve?

So if your business is failing, you should reduce the quantity and quality of services you offer? I guess in today's MBA world that is a sound business plan. As long as the numbers in the powerpoint look good, right?

how to save the post office:
1. get the government out of the equation
2. run it like a business
3. remove the dead wood

The Postal Service was advised by various government entities 15 years ago to make changes now to avert problems, like this, further down the road. Did they listen? No.
When it comes to change, America is toxic. Our own worst enemy.

Non-profit organizations get a huge discount to mail us junk mail. Political non-profits like the "Impeach Obama Now" organization pay around 10 to 15 cents to mail a letter. The USPS and Congress needs to stop subsidizing non-profits. Let them pay the same rates as the for profit organizations.

Do whatever it takes to avoid a taxpayer bailout. We already have an upcoming bailout of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp soon.

What about Congress' requirement that the P.O. pre-fund its' retirement plan - for the next 75 years - in 10 years? Costs them 5 billion a year to do that. Maybe relaxing that requirement would help? Just asking.

This may be the time to invest in UPS or FDX, since they are the leading private pkg/mail companies.

First of all I am VERY computer savvy; I use it exclusively for two businesses. But, I write my mom every week; hand written letters. I pay all my bills by check. I DO NOT TRUST MY PASSWORDS being broadcast across the web. I would NEVER pay a bill via cell phone or access my investment accounts. I LOVE getting a hand written Christmas or Birthday card. I DELETE all electronic cards of ANY KIND; they are annoying and lazy. If the US Postal Service raises the cost of a stamp to $1.00, that is OK with me; make it for up to 3 ounces or something. Restructuring is the right thing; same thing the government should do RIGHT NOW.