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Originally Posted by dellinger63
BTW Why do Dems feel PBS needs to be fed funded? If it can't stand on its own it needs to go.
Also wish the Tea Party would wake up and realize in this modern age of online billing and email there is little need for a Post Office and the money saved by shutting that down would be huge! Not to mention the reduction in emissions coming from all of their vehicles and the vacant property that could be sold or leased out.
$75 Billion yearly budget
218,000 vehicles
36,400 Post Offices some of them huge buildings. Not to metion sorting and distribution centers.
596,000 employees and their future pensions and benis.
Huge money!
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Yes, it is huge money, and virtually none of it comes from the Federal Gov't: the Post Office is required, by law, to be self-funding for general operations and capital improvements. So you don't need to worry, Del; you don't pay for the mail, other than for a few programs for the needy, as in, the blind. And it's required by law to charge the same rate no matter where the mail goes, whether down the block or to Alaska.
In fact, if the PO were allowed to actually run like a private business, it could cut unprofitable routes and stop delivering on Saturdays, not to mention charge more to send mail to less populated areas, like, say, Arkansas. So it could run five days a week and provide most of its cheaper service to big cities, while cutting out rural routes and charging more for areas that aren't near a big city. But it's not allowed to. While it doesn't get federal funds, other than for things like providing service to the blind and some overseas mail to citizens, it's required to get Congress' approval for any raise in rates or cuts.
As someone who has had to use the mail service in other nations, I really don't get the hatred for the Post Office here- it's cheaper than mail service is overseas and it's much, much more reliable. It is actually something we do better here than anywhere else.