Franken: Ending Saturday postal delivery a disservice to Minnesotans
February 6, 2013 at 8:44 am in Alexandria Echo Press
Today, U.S. Senator Al Franken, D-Minnesota, issued the following statement in response to the news that the U.S. Postal Service will suspend Saturday letter delivery: Continue Reading
I can’t remember the last time I got any mail on Saturday that couldn’t have waited until Monday. It is mostly junk.
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He talks about checks, how many checks can you cash when your mail comes after noon? Also, 99.9% of the people who receive Social Security checks should be on direct deposit by then. I can bet Al doesn’t even pick up his own mail on Saturday. He’s very rarely in the office anyway during a regular work week. Start representing MN and not just a few. The post office is broke,. Fix it or get rid of it!
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The unions helped to fund his run for the senate … of course he would come out to defend them now.
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Devilschild, you are right on target. In a recent Wall Street Journal article there was a notation that wages and benefits consume 80% of the Postal Service budget. In contrast Fed Ex wages and benefits are approximately 37% and the highly unionized UPS is approximately 55%. Franken panders to and solicits public employee union support so it is not surprising he opposes any meaningful change that could result in fewer Postal Service employees. Note that this comment is not intended to disparage Postal Service employees whom I believe work very hard. However, they have also negotiated wage and benefit packages that in the day of electronic information transfers render the Postal Service non-competitive.
While it is merely speculation, some pundits believe that this is simply a game of chicken that the head of the Postal Service is playing with Congress. The head of the Postal Service genuinely wants real change and had proposed consolidating some of the smaller post offices and not replacing some retired employees. The Union and rural America squawked, Congress rolled over and the proposed changes were tabled. The elimination of Saturday service is an attempt to continue with changes that will help to make the Postal Service less costly.
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They should have done this years ago. I could care less if I get mail on the weekend. Sounds like they are gonna keep delivering packages on Saturday though, that is probably smart. UPS would be licking their chops if the USPS stopped that service.
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The USPS is a service for the people of the US that is NOT funded by tax dollars. The only cost to the average person is the cost of a stamp. If you choose not to use the USPS it won’t cost you anything. UPS and FED-EX don’t deliver to all areas. The USPS does. I can imagine how much shipping rates would go up without the USPS and if you live in rural areas you’ll probably have to drive miles to get your package.
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Fed Ex ad UPS don’t deliver to all areas because it is illegal for them to do so. The USPS has been granted a monopoly; UPS and Fed Ex are not allowed to charge postage for letters, are prohibited from delivering to postal boxes and the USPO is the only carrier legally allowed to deliver non-urgent mail. That is what is so amazing, the USPS despite its monopoly isn’t profitable.
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The USPS is a SERVICE not a BUSINESS. It was never meant to make a profit.
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Quagmire, to follow up on your two posts. You first assert that the Postal Service is not funded by tax dollars, which is correct, so far. Your second post defends the poor performance of the Postal Service by stating that it is a “service” and isn’t intended to make a profit. Until recently that wasn’t a problem. As recently at 2006 the Postal Service had a profit. Beginning in 2007-2008 the Postal Service began to have multi-billion dollar losses. In March of 2010 the Postal Service itself estimated that over the next ten years it will have $238 billion in losses (note that that estimate of losses has nothing to do with the recent mandate to prefund employee medical benefits which compounds the problem). In 2011 the Obama Administration proposed $4 billion dollars in relief which was not acted on only because the Senate has yet to pass a budget. The Postal Service has reached its borrowing limit and defaulted on $5.6 billion dollars in its required health benefit funding. In November the Postal Service reported a $15.9 billion net loss which did include some of the prefunding requirements; over $5 billion was unrelated to any pre-funding requirement. Even the GAO has stated that the Postal Service’s financial problems have reached “a crisis” and that it must be restructured. The Postal Service management actually recognizes the problem and has sought to restructure; first by consolidating small Post Offices and reducing its employees which was blocked by Congress and now by suggesting that it will stop Saturday delivery. Congress has a choice, stop blocking reforms or start substantial subsidies. Franken is clearly in the camp of providing subsidies.
While the Postal Service has previously not received substantial funding (no funding is not correct because it does receive small amounts of funding related to some oversea voting and disability issues) it is clearly at a crossroads. It is experiencing multi-billion dollar operational losses (exclusive of the health benefit pre-funding) with no prospect of achieving profitability in the future without restructuring. To suggest that the Postal Service can continue to operate without substantial reform without receiving subsidies is disingenuous. The choice is restructure or subsidies. Senator Franken gets it and chooses subsidies. President Obama gets it and chooses subsidies. Congress needs to stop sitting on the fence and choose whether it is going to allow substantial reform or if it is going to subsidize the Postal Service. My opinion is different than Senator Franken and President Obama; I prefer that the Postal Service be restructured. Reform will not be “painless” but I prefer reform over subsidies of redundant and inefficient “service”.
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Joe Smith, I don’t care about Al Franken one iota. It was not my intention to defend him at all. However, if you are worried about subsidies and all the USPS workers lose those jobs, you’ll be paying “subsidies” for goverment assistance, higher shipping rates, less goods and services bought and a definite hit on the economy. I guess it amounts to pay now or later. I would like to see congress get it’s mitts out of the USPS and some reforms but not some of the drastic cuts some are talking about.
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Quagmire, your assertion that Postal workers would need government assistance sells Postal workers very short. I am confident that the vast majority are more than qualified to perform a variety of jobs. Although Postal workers and other government workers are often maligned, I do not share the view that government workers and Postal workers are incapable of anything other than “government work.” Your assertion that reforming the Postal Service will result in “higher shipping rates, less goods and services bought and a definite hit on the economy” is pure speculation. The Postal Service administration initially proposed closing some small Post Offices and eliminating about 12.5% of its employees through attrition (not layoffs or terminations) and the second proposal was to end Saturday mail delivery (Saturday package delivery would remain). I do not view these proposals as “drastic cuts”. These proposal don’t even address the multi-billion dollar operating losses that the Postal Service has experienced the last several years. I too would like to see Congress “get it’s mitts out of the USPS”, but that would mean the proposals you call “drastic” would be implemented. Just out of curiosity, would your call for Congress to “get it’s mitts out of the USPS” include removing the monopoly protection that it has been granted and allowing private businesses to compete?
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Ending Franken’s tenure as a carpetbagging Senator from California would be of great service to Minnesota.
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Oh no, we won’t get our Franken propoganda on Saturdays any more. I like to fire up the fireplace on weekends and that Franken fire starter comes in handy. I guess I’ll have to stockpile it ahead now.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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