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Monday, December 29, 2014

Republicans Slow Mail Delivery Down, Creating another problem solved by Privatization.

What, the mail is late again? Don’t you just hate the post office, another big government failure?

So far nothing has changed the Republican plan to dismantle the U.S. Postal Service. Forcing the post office to fund employee health and pension plans for 75 years in just 10 short years is bankrupting the service. It’s pretty safe to say most Americans don’t know what’s happening, and are unaware of the upcoming service center shutdowns. When they did know (below), they complained.

That’s bad news, because once service delays starts pissing people off, the public will unjustly blame the post office instead of the GOP’s back breaking requirement.
   
No matter what Sen. Tammy Baldwin does to try and right this wrong, Republicans will be proven right; government is bad at delivering mail. Despite the intent of the founding fathers, who included the post office in the constitution, Republicans are okay with getting rid of this guarantee.
After continuing to lose billions of dollars in fiscal 2013, the U.S. Postal Service will move forward with plans to close four processing centers in Wisconsin in 2015. The centers to be shuttered are in Madison, La Crosse, Eau Claire and the Wausau area.  
Funny, I remember back in 2009 when Republican Representatives James Sensenbrenner and Paul Ryan bravely came to the rescue of rural communities and farmers, after they bitterly complained about distribution center closings and the resulting delays of their business mail; products, payments and shipping.  
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. In Waukesha, business owners fear that cutbacks in mail collection hours will undermine their ability to conduct business.

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 ... found the cuts being imposed in southeastern Wisconsin to be too disruptive to customers. "You've got to remind the Postal Service repeatedly that their last name is service," he said.

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