US Postal Service defaults on $5.6B and will be insolvent by mid-2013!

[lotus503]

If we'd had a Democrat lead House they would still have taken off the month of October.

Grow-the-fuck-up.

The childlike mind of the progressive left on display. Blameless for anything and everything that happens. It's sad. Arrested development on display. Kicking and screaming to get what they want. Blaming anyone but themselves when something goes wrong. Never boring, but always tiring.

Way to focus on nothing of substance.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

From the article
I'm not really familiar with the books of the USPS, but it sounds to me like the law that specifically applies to the retirement program of the USPS required full, not present value funding, in order to make the federal government look more solvent. The article isn't really clear on this and I haven't looked at the numbers myself.

Look at the other research paper that I posted. It is definitely present value funding. I think the journalists who write these articles don't understand the difference and that is why they are so vague.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

The USPS seems to have been put in an impossible position by the government. On one hand, Congress tells them to remain solvent without government assistance. On the other hand, Congress raises bloody hell when the postal service talks about cutting Saturday service and shutting down the underused facilities that are a huge financial drain.

Either jump in with both feet or get out completely, imo.

That's a fair point. It's not reasonable for Congress to legislate all of the USPS' business practices, and to also legislate financial results. Personally, I think that Congress should just mandate that the pension be fully funded and the that there be no subsidies and then the let USPS adjust prices and service levels accordingly.

If they can't meet those goals even with adjustments to pricing and service levels (which I think is unlikely today but may happen in the future), then we can have a public discussion about whether it makes sense to continue USPS as an institution.

 

[Engineer]

that's a fair point. It's not reasonable for congress to legislate all of the usps' business practices, and to also legislate financial results. Personally, i think that congress should just mandate that the pension be fully funded and the that there be no subsidies and then the let usps adjust prices and service levels accordingly.

if they can't meet those goals even with adjustments to pricing and service levels (which i think is unlikely today but may happen in the future), then we can have a public discussion about whether it makes sense to continue usps as an institution.

bingo.