GOP bill would gut postal service

After successive Republican administrations mismanaged the U.S. Postal Service almost beyond recognition, who can truly trust the GOP to fix what it broke?

Now who else but right-wing Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) has introduced a bill to thoroughly gut the Postal Service. Issa's bill would eliminate Saturday mail delivery altogether. And it would close post offices and mail sorting centers.

Abolishing Saturday mail has been a goal suggested by right-wingers for years now. In conservaworld, it's always pay more for less service. They completely bypass obvious solutions like charging more to send out junk mail (which just clutters up living spaces).

The bill would also endanger postal employees by renegotiating bargaining agreements - a step that would likely slash their wages and benefits.

Here's an equally silly part of the bill: Under Issa's bill, the Postal Service would be governed by a congressionally appointed committee modeled on the District of Columbia Financial Control Board. The D.C. Financial Control Board was created under the Contract With America to micromanage everything the city of Washington did. It could even override decisions made by D.C. City Council. And it was an out-and-out disaster.

The Financial Control Board left the nation's capital in much worse shape than before. It wasted money and pursued an agenda shaped by right-wing members of Congress who had no stake in the city's doings.

Do we really want to repeat this mistake with the Postal Service? The last thing the Postal Service needs is to be hamstrung by even more political appointees - especially considering Congress's culture of corruption.

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/issa-introduces-bill-to-overhaul-us-postal-service-increase-regulation/2011/06/23/AG7CS4hH_story.html)