On That Post Office Thing...

Some of my thoughts this morning were triggered by an exchange between Ann Coulter and Mark Walsh, founding CEO of "Air America". It started out as "what is racist about opposition to health care" but devolved into various arguments over health care. And Ann brought up that it is illegal to compete with the Post Office.

Auuurruuuuh?

Ann was sure of her facts, and willing to back them up. Her opponent said "it is not", and she said "I'll post the link on my website."

She did. Here's the document she linked. The Private Express Statutes.

Basically, private carriers can only deliver letters and packages in certain defined instances, and they are not allowed to charge less than the post office. She also mentioned a figure about "twice the postal rate" for the same service... and yup, that's in there, too:

443 - It will be conclusively presumed that a letter is extremely urgent and is covered by the suspension if the amount paid for private carriage of the letter is at least $3 or twice the applicable U.S. postage for First-Class Mail (including Priority Mail), whichever is greater.

Did I mention the Post Office is $6 Billion in the hole and thinking about cutting a day of delivery out of the week?

But don't worry. Medicare isn't "technically" bankrupt. There won't be rationing. There won't be rationing. There will be no denials of service to seniors. There will be no denials of service to seniors. Private Insurance will not be outlawed. Private Insurance will not be outlawed. Government will not meddle with it. Government will not meddle with it. These aren't the droids you're looking for. You can go about your business.

It's not in "The Bill".