Due to the federal legislation which created the Postal Service in 1970, USPS was unable to even plan on profitability. Senator Susan Collins clearly spent much time and effort on the new law she proudly claims to have authored in Dec. 2006 and passed just before the current deep recession began. At that time, USPS top brass pointed out the flaws in the new law but she wouldn't hear of it. Thinking half-a-loaf was at least something, USPS acquiesced and accepted the inevitable.
The law had positive elements, no doubt. But the worst recession in 80 years compounded the effects of new communication options for the public. The loss of First-Class Mail over the past 10 years and the unique, bitter pill of pre-funding retiree health bennies at $5.5 billion a year revealed the 2006 law for what it was: some help, to be sure, but at a price too great to accomplish financial sustainability.
Now she throws a hissy fit over well-intended but flawed legislation which had no hope of succeeding despite billions in already painful cost reductions by USPS.
OK, I'm biased. I work here. But that means I know a little something about the history of the matter.
Senator Collins, some unsolicited advice from a former admirer and supporter of yours: Pay a little less attention to detractors of the Postal Service, one of the best employers in your state, and stop your hypocritical grandstanding like publicly calling for additional major efficiencies while you then sabotage even the smallest atempts at doing so. If USPS can't remove an underused blue collection box without your intervention on behalf of a loud minority, how can it hope to make the major restructuring you and your NIMBY politicians so righteously call for? No wonder Congress is so poorly regarded. Some leadership.
Townspeople are NIMBYs.
They probably want stamp prices to remain the lowest in the world (who doesn't) but will also sing "trim waste" because it's an easy thing to say without having to make the necessary decisions to do so (like pulling a box that averages just 5 or 6 letters a day).
I sympathize with their feelings, but feelings don't pay the freight in any organization, whether it's Town Hall or the USPS. Why are they worried about vandalism of their mailboxes? Maybe not enough town money for adequate police presence?
What hypocrisy!
Due to the federal
Due to the federal legislation which created the Postal Service in 1970, USPS was unable to even plan on profitability. Senator Susan Collins clearly spent much time and effort on the new law she proudly claims to have authored in Dec. 2006 and passed just before the current deep recession began. At that time, USPS top brass pointed out the flaws in the new law but she wouldn't hear of it. Thinking half-a-loaf was at least something, USPS acquiesced and accepted the inevitable.
The law had positive elements, no doubt. But the worst recession in 80 years compounded the effects of new communication options for the public. The loss of First-Class Mail over the past 10 years and the unique, bitter pill of pre-funding retiree health bennies at $5.5 billion a year revealed the 2006 law for what it was: some help, to be sure, but at a price too great to accomplish financial sustainability.
Now she throws a hissy fit over well-intended but flawed legislation which had no hope of succeeding despite billions in already painful cost reductions by USPS.
OK, I'm biased. I work here. But that means I know a little something about the history of the matter.
Senator Collins, some unsolicited advice from a former admirer and supporter of yours: Pay a little less attention to detractors of the Postal Service, one of the best employers in your state, and stop your hypocritical grandstanding like publicly calling for additional major efficiencies while you then sabotage even the smallest atempts at doing so. If USPS can't remove an underused blue collection box without your intervention on behalf of a loud minority, how can it hope to make the major restructuring you and your NIMBY politicians so righteously call for? No wonder Congress is so poorly regarded. Some leadership.
Townspeople are NIMBYs. They
Townspeople are NIMBYs.
They probably want stamp prices to remain the lowest in the world (who doesn't) but will also sing "trim waste" because it's an easy thing to say without having to make the necessary decisions to do so (like pulling a box that averages just 5 or 6 letters a day).
I sympathize with their feelings, but feelings don't pay the freight in any organization, whether it's Town Hall or the USPS. Why are they worried about vandalism of their mailboxes? Maybe not enough town money for adequate police presence?
What hypocrisy!