[OT] Postal services (was: better Internet)

[Jeffry Smith]

On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 8:46 PM, Thomas Charron <twaffle at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 11:23 AM, Jeffry Smith <jsmith at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>>
>> >  The USPS *does* receive subsidies -- some Federal tax dollars go to
>> > support it (or did, last I knew).  That's something else entirely.
>> >
>> Not for years  - that's one of their problems in that they have to
>> both deliver anywhere and avoid a debt (not necessarily make a
>> profit).
>>
>   This is untrue.  They place the subsidy in the form of appropriations.
> Specifically, the Federal government 'buys' a part of the USPS every year.
> Recently, this is specifically why the USPS didn't stop delivery of mail of
> Saturdays, as they had planned to.  A simple search for 'appropriations' and
> USPS will find tens of thousands of references to appropriations bills for
> every year.  750 million to buy new trucks is a subsidy if you ask me.
>
According to all the sites I find, the only "subsidy" is that USG buys
services for the blind from the USPS.  Per the 1989 Postal Reorg Act,
they're now self-funding.  Some sites to check:

http://waxman.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Postal_Reform.pdf

http://www.uspsoig.gov/FOIA_files/ESS-WP-09-001.pdf

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10538t.pdf

jeff