Whenever the fans of active government need an example of a state-run business that works “without taxpayer subsidy,” more often than not, they’ll trot out the U.S. Postal Service.
The U.S. Postal Service’s current business model “is not viable” and the mail agency should make deeper job and wage cuts, hire more part-time staff and consider outsourcing operations, according to a draft of a government audit acquired by The Federal Eye.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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Auditors also urge Congress to remove restrictions on the Postal Service’s ability to cut Saturday mail delivery and close post offices, according to the report, which offers recommendations similar to the USPS’s own proposed 10-year business plan.
Or we could just follow Germany and Holland and privatize the mail system. For a good exploration of how that might work — and the benefits of such a shift — see here.
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Political scientist Alan Abramowitz’ highly respected election forecasting model predicts House Republicans will pick up 37 seats this fall. That’s well within reach of the 40 seats they need to regain control.
But Abramowitz cautions against reading this as an ideological shift among voters:
Contrary to many other analyses, however, the results of the forecasting model indicate that the main factors contributing to likely Republican gains in November are structural and do not reflect an especially negative political environment for Democrats… [T]he main reasons that Democrats are likely to experience significant losses in 2010 are the normal tendency of voters to turn against the president’s party in midterm elections regardless of the national political environment and the fact that after gaining more than 50 seats in the past two elections, they are defending a large number of seats, many in Republican-leaning districts.
[Hat tip: Taegan Goddard]
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Our friend and past writer Karen Anderson has created a new Web site for Christians looking for a college education online. Most of the material on the site is geared to that effort, but she also has an attached blog with a number of interesting list-style posts. For example, if you’d like a roll of the “50 Best Blogs for Christian Homeschoolers,” here you are. Or how about “100 Amazing Websites for Christian Kids” here? If you enjoy Twitter, Anderson has that covered as well, with “100 Twitter Feeds for Your Spiritual Enlightenment.”
There’s a lot there. Take a few minutes and have a look.
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