There’s a lot that $63,000 can buy: a year’s worth of tuition, fees, and related expenses at Harvard; three years of healthcare costs for an average family of four; a brand new 2012 BMW Z4 Roadster with an automatic transmission and a turbocharged inline-six; or, if you’re a member of the House of Representatives, nine month’s worth of unsolicited mail.
Congress and USPS: Rearranging the Deck Chairs
One does not need to be an accountant to recognize that the United States Postal Service (USPS), which lost $8.5 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2010, $5.1 billion in FY 2011, and is on pace to lose another $11 billion in FY 2012, is in dire straits. Only a politician, however, would insist on delaying the Postal Service’s attempts to put a tourniquet on its red ink-hemorrhaging business model.
Congressional Meddling in USPS Makes Bailout More Likely
Congress seems to have two legislative speeds: inertia in the face of an oncoming fiscal disaster, or ugly, last-minute scrambles to ram through sham legislation that often exacerbates already fraught situations.
USPS in Disarray
The problems facing the United States Postal Service (USPS) are legion. On May 11, 2011 five USPS supervisors from Michigan and Ohio were charged with taking bribes consisting of cash, cars, drinks, and lap dances. In return, the supervisors directed vehicle maintenance work worth $13 million to a contractor. A manager of a postal vehicle center in Detroit received “thousands of dollars in drinks and lap dances at a local strip club, more than $8,000 in free work done on a relative’s truck, and a $3,000 paver patio installed in the manager’s backyard,” in addition to a weekly visit from a prostitute, paid for by the contractor.
USPS Wants To Branch Out
The holiday season is upon us; the time of year when the mailbox tends to begin filling up with gift catalogs and greeting cards from friends and family. This is also the time of year when the United States Postal Service (USPS) has traditionally seen a spike in mail traffic, as its fiscal health is often pegged to the level of first-class mail traffic that occurs over the holiday season. Those circumstances are dire regardless of how much mail is sent through the end of the year, and the cure sought by postal officials is worse than the disease.
The USPS: Finally, Running Like A Real Private-Sector Business!
Unfortunately, U.S. Postmaster General John Potter has apparently decided that the business model he wants to emulate is that of beleaguered General Motors, whose Chief Executive Rick Wagoner took a 64 percent increase in his salary in 2007 while his company was taking a nosedive, losing $39 billion.