(Jeff Danziger’s website)
Most of the libertarians I’ve known say that the only two “honest” governmental duties are protecting the borders and delivering the mail. Darrell Issa and his cronies won’t even concede the second one:
Door-to-door mail delivery is about as American as apple pie. With the Postal Service facing billions of dollars in annual losses, that tradition could be virtually phased out by 2022 under a proposal in Congress.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday approved a plan to move to cluster box and curbside delivery, which includes mailboxes at the end of driveways.
The proposal is part of broader legislation by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the oversight and government reform panel, designed to cut costs at the cash-strapped agency by up to $4.5 billion a year. The Postal Service had a $16 billion loss last year.
The bill was approved on a party-line vote, with 22 Republicans supporting it and 17 Democrats opposing it…
About 1 in 3 mail customers has door-to-door delivery, Issa said. The shift would include safe and secure cluster box delivery areas, he said, especially for elderly customers who receive Social Security checks and prescriptions through the mail…
Issa’s plan allows for people with physical hardships to get waivers allowing them to keep door delivery. There’s also a provision giving people the option to keep door delivery by paying a special fee to cover the additional cost.
Issa’s bill also allows the Postal Service to take into account factors such as poverty rates and population density in deciding which areas would be allowed to keep door delivery.
The financially beleaguered Postal Service, an independent agency, gets no tax dollars for its day-to-day operations, but is subject to congressional control…
Hey, it would be no hardship for Issa’s clients to pay extra for personal delivery, or to switch to having their medications delivered by Fedex. And they have direct deposit, so no worries about their Social Security checks, either.
Open Thread: Still Working to Gut the GovernmentPost + Comments (332)