Could this really happen -- the end of the Postal Service as we know it?
If Congress does not pass legislation that would save the Postal Service from financial collapse before the end of its current session, the future of the country’s mail service will be in the hands of a senator who opposes government unions and thinks the Postal Service should be privatized.
In January, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is slated to take over as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees the federal workforce and the entire Postal Service. Johnson has said that the Postal Service should go through a bankruptcy process that would result in a downsized, private corporation that would lose the benefits of governmental oversight and regulation. It could also allow the revised entity to terminate or substantially modify its contracts, including its collective bargaining agreements with various postal unions.
This little gasp of horror at the unthinkable is from Think Progress -- this must be my day for peeking in on the lefties. Actually I think it would be a good thing for Congressz and the post office people to undergo a little reality check by facing the facts about how competition and the digital revolution have upended them. A downsized operation with a different mission, privatized and free from government oversight and regulation? Hallelujah, bring it on.
Yeah, I know, probably wishful thinking on my part. Bloated bureucracies supported by the federal government do not go away.
