Neither rain nor sleet, nor snow nor dark of night will stay the post office from their appointed rounds. Debt on the other hand just might.

The USPS is running out of money, nearly bankrupt.

How can you be “NEARLY” bankrupt when you’re $10 BILLION in debt?

At that point shouldn’t the word “Nearly” just be removed?

Looks like it’s time for the Great Mail Route Bail Out!

If you ask postal officials and their union bosses what’s to blame, you get standard talking points. There is a much lower volume of mail today than in the past due to email and electronic services such as bill paying. That’s one thing they will tell you. Back in 2006, Congress implemented a decree to make the USPS prepay retirement benefits for the next 75 years over only a 10-year time span at a cost of some $5.5 billion/year . That’s another reason they will give.

It’s not that those officials and union bosses are entirely wrong, mail volume IS down and they ARE paying all that prepaid retirement but there is more to it than they will tell you.

The postal unions, the NALC and APWU, have negotiated some real sweetheart deals for their workers. In fact, the postal unions have collective-bargaining privileges well beyond those of regular government employees. Part of that collective-bargaining includes a provision which prevents laying off the vast majority of their workforce. Out of some 600,000 postal workers, only about 15,000 or so are not covered by that provision.

To make lay-off based cuts to get back on track, the post office would need to cut about 120,000 jobs.

To be fair, the USPS has started trying to sell off unused property, stopped building more post offices and they have cut, mostly through attrition, some 100,000 jobs.

The measures already taken are simply not enough.

The USPS has a $15 billion dollar credit line with the Treasury Department; but, that’s gone or nearly so which is why they say they are “Nearly” bankrupt.

To do anything at this point, the USPS must have Congressional approval.

One thing that’s been tossed around is an increase in that line of credit b- ut, that’s just more typical liberal government thinking. You can spend your way out of a hole and right now, what are the chances of adding another 5.5 billion dollars to the deficit which would offset toe cost of an annual early retirement payment?  Another idea would be to drop Saturday delivery. Congress seems chilly to that one and of course, so do the unions. Another idea would cut 220,000 full-time jobs and 300 processing centers by 2015, but that idea must also receive congressional approval and get the nod from the postal unions.

One of the things that gets glossed over by the unions and postal officials is the cost of fuel. Oh, they will tell you that fuel costs are a factor – but they just leave it at that.

Here’s the real deal on fuel costs.

It’s been liberals, backed by unions, who have, for more than 30 years, put the nix on the building of new oil refineries and God forbid we poke holes in the ground to tap our own oil reserves…right? Well since Obama took office, the price of a gallon of gas has doubled from somewhere around a buck 70 per gallon to a current national average of $3.40 per gallon.

The USPS has about 200,000 vehicles and almost all of them run on gas…foreign gas. You might want to sit down for this. For every one penny rise in the cost of gas per gallon, it costs the USPS some $8 million dollars. That’s an extra 1.3 TRILLION dollars at the pump since Obama took office.

So, what’s the USPS to do?

It looks like the Mail Route Bail Out is knocking at the door!

If you don’t count that line of credit, the post office does not operate on taxpayer monies but that may soon change. Obama’s car czar, Ron Bloom, has just taken a position as an advisor to the National Association of Letter Carriers and the NALC has also retained the services of Lazard, an investment bank.

Bloom was the guy who put together the auto bail outs…at taxpayer expense.

NALC boss, Fredric Rolando has stated to the National Journal, “There is a value to this network that goes so far beyond just delivering the mail. You don’t just start taking it apart and shutting out the lights before you know what you can do to grow the business.”

One bill being considered by the house would allow for advertising on USPS buildings and vehicles but somehow, I just don’t see that as beneficial.

Once again, unions have, through collective bargaining, overstepped their reach and now it looks as though the American taxpayer will be on the hook as their chickens come home to roost.