A Bailout for the Postal Service?

A Bailout for the Postal Service is One of the Few Bailouts I Agree With
By Donald Pennington
Is the United States Postal Service seeking a bailout? According to reports from news sources like www.CNSNews.com they are.
But, rather than asking for a typical bailout like the industries that Washington's wishing to federalize, the Postal Service is seeking assistance from Congress. That, in itself, begs the question that, if it's not a taxpayer funded type of bailout, what type of bailout is it? Isn't everything done by the government taxpayer funded?
What the Postal Service is asking for is old fashioned, common sense help from Congress.

The Postal Service suffered a $384 million dollar loss during the first quarter of the fiscal year (October through December), which is normally the busiest period due to the holiday season. A large part of the losses was due to increased fuel prices. With 200,000 vehicles, every cent of fuel costs the Postal Service $8 million dollars.
The Postmaster General, John Potter, has suggested that delivery days be cut from six days a week to five. This idea alone would save the Postal Service an estimated $3.5 billion per year. Although the plan to reduce delivery days hasn't been well accepted it's a worthwhile option to consider.
In addition, Potter has already taken steps to reduce Postal Service costs by planning 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. They've also cut 50 million work hours, stopped construction of new facilities; frozen salaries for executives, began selling unused facilities and have cut post office hours.
Layoffs might even be in the works for some Postal Service employees.
Congress is considering letting the amount of debt the Postal Service is allowed to carry be increased. But isn't that just "more of the same?" If the very people, that are doing the job, suggest that Saturday delivery could be eliminated then why not take them up on it? It seems, to me, that if it turns out to not be a great idea then Saturday delivery could be resumed. It's common that the person on the job usually has the best solutions for any organization's problems.
Other than that, we could end up overloading an already stressful job by increasing the work-load on the remaining employees. You only think those lines are long now. We consumers haven't even really seen a snappy, tired, and stressed Postal Service worker yet. Have we already forgotten where the term "going postal" comes from?
Potter has a acceptable abstraction here. Like all abundant ideas, it's simple, and it answers a big allotment of the problem. Let's accord the advisers of the Postal Service a breach and let them append Saturday delivery. Congress should accept this to advice bailout the Postal Service.