 ccrp poll us postal service bailout  you can now comment on stories and polls let us know how you feel about the issues new poll overview the usps is losing up to 25 million dollars a day until now taxpayers have not been on the hook for its mounting losses a bailout recently approved by the senate would appropriate 34 billion in federal money congress shares much of the blame for years the postal service begged washington for the freedom to cut its own budget by closing post offices and cutting employees but congress under pressure from rural constituents and labor unions prevented the cuts in december the usps said it wanted to close more than half of its mail processing centers eliminate 28000 jobs end overnight delivery of firstclass mail close 3700 local post offices and end saturday delivery the senate said no prohibiting the postmaster general from taking those actions altogether or delaying them for two to three years for the time being the postal service has a moratorium on office closings but that moratorium expires on may 15 the service is now caught between competing interests on one side the desire to fix the budget and stop the financial bleeding on the other the desire to spare small towns across america from losing their local post offices even if they aren t making money the postal service has identified 3700 post offices for possible closure both the house and senate plans would curtail the postal service s ability to close those offices though the senatepassed measure is far more restrictive than the one being floated in the house a competing house bill allows the postmaster to cut services close offices raise fees and force existing postal employees to pay for their own retirement the bill faces some democratic opposition and has yet to reach the house floor for a vote unless the house and senate compromise the usps could announce post office closings next week regardless of where you stand on the issue call your congressman or us senator and let them know where you stand on the bailout senator stabenow s office 202 2244822 senator levin s office 202 2246221 congressman camp s office 202 2253561 new poll question should the us congress pass legislation to bailout the us postal service yes no undecided to vote in this poll click on this link should the us congress pass legislation to bailout the us postal service   to enter your comments click on add new comment after you vote previous poll question should the michigan legislature pass legislation that would allow for the privatization of michigan prisons yes 53 no 43 undecided 3 two comments were made on this poll question comment 1 privatizing the prisons my husband is a prison guard and yes i want him to keep his job if you want to pay them 10 hr that s exactly the kind of people you will get there are some jobs best left to professionals and corrections is one of them comment 2 privatization in state prisons i worked on this issue extensively nationwide during the 1990s and if the bias of entrenched unions and entrenched state officials who are preservationists for the status quo can be addressed as well as privatized corrections company integrity then privatization will work just like the dric bridge subject government always wants more control michigan had an 800000000 budget for corrections when i first began working on that budget corrections spending has grown 538 in the last 34 years in 2008 it was 2 billion bucks annually 2012 yikes the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting new results we must be innovative alternative sentencing and community corrections has not reached its potential in michigan pa 511 is under utilized   all emails addresses  