The Postal Service, at a Supermarket Near You?

I've always believed the postal rates for stamps were ungodly low.

Think about it; you can send a small piece of paper across the country for just 44 cents? It's crazy. It should be a lot more. Rates should also go up to make up or lost business to the email. The postal service is leaning more toward a specialty service, like Fed Ex or UPS. The

The Washington Post: The U.S. Postal Service estimates $238 billion in losses in the next 10 years if lawmakers, postal regulators and unions don't give the mail agency more flexibility in setting delivery schedules, price increases and labor costs … Customers will continue to migrate to the Internet … Postmaster General John E. Potter reported the Postal Service experienced a 13 percent drop in mail volume last fiscal year, more than double any previous decline … The changes could mean an end to Saturday mail deliveries, longer delivery times for letters and packages, increases in postage-stamp prices that exceed the rate of inflation, and -- possibly --
future layoffs … the Postal Service is considering … moving some products and services to nearby supermarkets, office supply stores and pharmacies.

The postmaster general … armed with $4.8 million worth of outside studies that conclude that, without drastic changes, the mail agency will face even more staggering losses.

Three studies (concluded) The agency's business model is so poor,
consultants concluded, that privatizing it is untenable.

Did you get that? The postal service is such a poor business model, that privatizing it is untenable. Another words, Fed Ex and UPS were smart to just focus on delivering PACKAGES, not little paper envelopes.

But the second big point is the postal service has been trying to balance their books, to be profitable, to show government can work, but have been stopped by…some Republicans. Remember this?:

Milwaukee Journal: As the U.S. Postal Service searches for $2 billion in spending cuts, residents in several Wisconsin communities are objecting to changes at their post offices. Consolidation of mail carriers in Oconomowoc, West Bend, Oak Creek and elsewhere has stirred complaints that mail is being delivered late and that residents feel neglected.

Some have found a sympathetic ear in an influential place: their (Republican) congressman. U.S. Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner and Paul Ryan both have intervened successfully on behalf of constituents who were unhappy with planned belt-tightening measures at their post office. In both cases, the Postal Service shelved its plans and re-examined its cost-cutting strategies.

Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Menomonee Falls, said that while he does not have an alternative plan for trimming costs, he found the cuts being imposed in southeastern Wisconsin to be too disruptive to customers.

So the Republicans refuse to make the changes they complain make the Postal Service an inefficient government run entity. That's just odd behavior, isn't it?