Postal Office in Need of Bailout

Whose next in Bailout Nation? As they say on the basketball courts, the Postal Office has stepped up to say "we got next!" Just add it to the tab, our pockets our endless and our Federal Reserve is generous. Put it in TARP... or TALF... or PPIP... or IOU... whatever.

I don't know the terms of the Postal Office's retirement benefits and health care but I am betting it is quite superior than what 95%+ of people in the good ole private sector get. Shake out your pockets readers... it's time to subsidize your fellow man, even if you don't have healthcare. Or have to work until 75.... we have bills to pay in the parallel universe called the public sector.

Via AP

• The financially strapped U.S. Postal Service will run out of money this year without help from Congress, Postmaster General John Potter warned on Wednesday. "We are facing losses of historic proportion. Our situation is critical," Potter told a House subcommittee.
• The agency lost $2.8 billion last year and is looking at much larger losses this year said Potter, who is seeking congressional permission to reduce mail delivery from six days to five days a week.
• Potter also urged changes in how it pre-pays for retiree health care to cut its annual costs by $2 billion. If the Postal Service does run out of money, the lingering question, Potter told the House Oversight post office subcommittee, is which bills will get paid and which will not.
• Even if the agency succeeds in reaching its planned cost cuts of $5.9 billion, there could still be a $6 billion deficit in 2010, Potter said. (child's play, that's like TARP funds for 2-3 banks, ring em up at the cash register)
• Last week, the post office said it planned to offer early retirement to 150,000 workers and is eliminating 1,400 management positions and closing six of its 80 district offices across the country in cost-cutting efforts. Potter said he expects 10,000 to 15,000 workers to accept the early retirement offer.
• Dan Blair, head of the independent Postal Regulatory Commission, suggested that other savings are possible through closing small and rural post offices — something Congress has resisted in the past.
• Officials said the recession has contributed to a mail volume drop of 5.2 billion pieces compared to the same period last year. If there is no economic recovery, the USPS projects volume for the year will be down by 12 billion to 15 billion pieces of mail.
• He added that it may be necessary to increase the limit on the amount of debt the post office can carry. (aha! The American solution rears its beautiful head - once you exceed your credit limit, access more credit... its a national ethos)
• William Young, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, stressed in his testimony that the agency is not seeking a taxpayer bailout, "but we are here to ask the Congress for help." (and how exactly would that work without a taxpayer bailout?)

Interesting factoid

• Lawmakers also raised questions regarding recent news reports which said Potter is paid as much as $800,000 a year.
  
• That is not correct, Potter said. He said his salary, set by Congress, is $263,575. He said the news reports were also counting his retirement fund, the cost of his security detail and a $135,000 bonus which would be paid over 10 years after he retires.

Security detail? Indeed.

So you don't make $800K?... that's if we counted your salary ($264K) plus your $135K bonus... that only gets me to about $400K... must be one serious security detail to cover the other $400K annually.