Now if they could only work on alleviating the REAL problem - the USPS being forced into funding the next 75 years of pensions and benefits - there would be no need for "Band-Aids".
From Wikipedia...
The United States Postal Service employs some 574,000 workers, making it the third-largest civilian employer in the United States behind the federal government and Wal-Mart. [...] For every penny increase in the national average price of gasoline, the USPS spends an extra $8 million per year to fuel its fleet.[...]
The Role of Congress
Of related significance is the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA), which obligates the USPS to prefund 75-years worth of future health care benefit payments to retirees within a ten-year time span — a requirement to which no other government organization is subject. Thus, in addition to the weak economy and the diversion of mail to electronic means, the mandates of PAEA have had a considerable impact on Postal Service finances. As a consequence, it has been charged that the US Postal Service budget crisis of 2011 is, in essence, an artificial one.
Congress also has the ability to affect the USPS budget by changing rates for postage.[...]
The U. S. Postal Service (Postal Service) is one of the largest employers of veterans in the nation, second only to the Department of Defense.
The GOP would be eating a lot of crow and denying their push to privatize the USPS (and break up yet another of the nations largest labor unions and put tens of thousands of veterans out of work) should the USPS (much like GM) be turned around by "government intervention" and "leveling the playing field" by Dems in Congress.
If a ridiculous and unprecedented financial burden brought on by government intervention got them into this mess, let government intervention "rescue" them from it.
Add to that a model fleet of vehicles, less dependent on fossil fuels, using electric and hybrid technologies, and the Obama Administration would have another trophy for their showcase by the time the President leaves office in January 2017.
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