Posted by Dan Barrett – February 16, 2010
Who ever thought cuts would cost so much? The US Postal Service is in deep financial trouble and is looking to balance its books, mostly because it would literally take an act of Congress to bail out the federal letter carriers, by cutting Saturday deliveries. Both Congress and the White House want to see your neighborhood postal worker walking their nearly 80,000 routes on Saturdays – the problem is they may only be walking with empty bags. A 14% drop from last year’s volume makes maintaining a sixth day of delivery almost laughable. Lawmakers have gone so far to say if the USPS drops the day of delivery, they will stop picking up the tab for both compensated mail for the blind and overseas absentee-balloting materials. It would be a $75 million cost the USPS would have to cover – most likely passed on to its dwindling consumer base.
Even though the US Constitution grants the government “to establish Post Offices and post Roads,” it does not dictate the number of days required to complete such tasks.