House GOP fails to deliver on postal service

Article by: EDITORIAL , New York Times
Updated: July 25, 2012 - 6:22 PM

House Republicans are abandoning their promise to debate postal reform before the August recess.

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House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio

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Even as the United States Postal Service sinks toward bankruptcy, House Republicans are abandoning their promise to debate postal reform before the August recess.

Preoccupied with re-election, Republican members recently found time to cast their 33rd obsessive vote to repeal or defund the new health care law. Yet no floor time has been made available to address ways to help the Postal Service as it faces default Aug. 1 on a $5.5 billion obligation in retirement financing.

Don't worry, is their cavalier advice, the mail will still be delivered. This is true in the short run, but it is a blow to the service's business prospects and a blot on the House in failing to meet a basic civic responsibility to constituents.

Congress supplies no taxpayer support to the service, but lawmakers do not hesitate to interfere with proposed reforms like the shutting of little-used post offices.

The service, hemorrhaging losses of a billion dollars a month, has a respectable plan to consolidate redundant services, cut costs and payroll and adapt to the Internet challenge, but it needs approval for certain parts.

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