Sen. Sanders Calls Postal Service Plan ‘Deeply Flawed’

The U.S. Postal Service on Thursday informed tens of thousands of employees that it plans to close mail processing facilities. The decisions are not final. No closings will occur before May 15. Postmaster General Patrick Donahue agreed to that timetable under moratorium proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders to give Congress time to act. “The plan announced today by the U.S. Postal Service is deeply flawed and Congress must change it. I expect comprehensive postal reform legislation to be on the floor of the Senate within the next few weeks,” Sanders added.

“At a time when the Postal Service is competing against the instantaneous delivery of information from email and the Internet, slowing down mail delivery service will result in less business and less revenue, and will bring about a death spiral for this institution which is so vitally important for all Americans,” Sanders said.

“A critical weakness of the current Postal Service plan is that it ignores the onerous financial burden being placed on the Postal Service by $5.5 billion a year in pre-payments for future retiree health benefits. According to the Postal Service inspector general, those payments are no longer necessary because of the $45 billion which that account already has accumulated,” Sanders added. “The Postal Service needs to be reformed not by massive cuts, but by a new entrepreneurial business model which expands the products and services the post office can sell in the 21st century digital age.”

Read more about an effort by a group of 27 senators calling for “significant improvements” in a bill to modernize the U.S. Postal Service »

Read the letter to Sanders from the Postal Service inspector general saying a big funding cushion already has been built into the mail service’s health benefit funds »

7 thoughts on “Sen. Sanders Calls Postal Service Plan ‘Deeply Flawed’

  1. What the Postal Service just did to not only hundreds of thousands of americans jobs, but to the whole country as well! This decision will be detroying universal mail service to all americans! Closing and consolidating 250 mail facilities, will not help the mail stands service, but instead will destroy it! The sad thing about this decision, is Congress is sitting back watching while this happens! American citizens, are you watching! Our mail delivery system will be destroyed. This will indeed be detrimental to all of america. The mail as we know it today, will be destroyed and delayed. This move by the Postal Service is clestly not a positive, but a negative!. Sen. Bernie Sanders is correct when he stated this is a bad move by the Postal management! Someone need to replace PostMaster General Donahoe; he’s clearly cares nothing about the Postal Mail Service, the customers, or the people who has spent the balance of their lives dedicated to processing and dispatching the mail on a daily basis! Congress, you need to wake up, get off of your butts and vote and find policies that will keep this Postal Service finanical stable to continue to serve the american people! Keep the service, as it is now! Continue fighting for us Sen. Sanders!

  2. Forget the bull, this was all planned, there is no GOP or Democrats or whatever, USPS is part of a smokescreen, so is Oil and Gas etc., the end of a Democracy, all a setup for one world Government, no guns for you, no freedom for you.
    Live Free or Die !

  3. I see said the blind man? Post Office needs new management period.

    Congress should appoint a “blue ribbon panel” of retired Fortune 500 executives to investigate the need for 110,000 po mismanagers when you have 479,000 workers……a ratio of 1 to 5…….total insane to have that many sucking up payroll!

    pay each one 250K tax free for their “service” to the American People!

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