Senate Votes to Cover Its Own Ass on Postal Service Reform, Fails to Reform Postal Service

Ah, election year. When a young old senator's thoughts turn to seniors, local businesses, and other special interests.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) can't go on this way. Something's gotta give if the USPS is going to meet pension obligations and generally stay afloat. There are only so many times you can increase the price of a first-class stamp before post office closure, Saturday delivery termination, or slower delivery have to be seriously considered. 

So what has the Senate decided to do? Today, the World's Greatest Deliberative Body, will get down to the important business of holding a bunch of votes on amendments to the postal reform bill explicitly designed to give members from rural districts and areas with lots of seniors plausible deniability come Election Day:

Lieberman, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) negotiated late last week to permit votes on the amendments as a way to keep skittish colleagues happy and to allow at least a few of them the opportunity to say they tried to protect small post offices, the concerns of senior citizens and home-state businesses that rely on or profit from the mailing industry. 

Lots more on the slow, dysfunctional progress of postal reform.