Postal Letter

Why is it easy to close an underutilized post office, but impossible to close a useless military base?

My small town will likely lose its post office due to budget cuts, but a local military base which has not been needed since WWII is safe from extinction. I'm ex-military and not soft on national defense, but I sure hate to see my tax dollars wasted on this white elephant.

Public Comments

1. They stopped subsidizing the post office about 11 years ago. It has to balance its own budget and can't just call their friends in Congress for an extra appropriation or two.
2. Many, many bases have been closed due to BRAC but it is a hot political topic. Even a small base can employ 1000 local citizens and contribute millions of dollars to the local economy. Usually it is the local Congressman, Mayor, and other elected officials that beg and lobby Congress to keep the base open. Often the DoD would rather close the base but is forced to maintain it because of the politics of the economic impact of the base.
3. Same old story of politicians protecting their districts. Just like how they always fight for the military contractors in their district whether the stuff they make has any real use or not.
4. Like Bruce said, the USPS needs to balance its budget. The postal service keeps raising its rates every year, sometimes more often than that, and they are still having budget problems. The fact that they are doing less and less work but need more and more money to do it tells me that the entire organization is insolvent and needs an overhaul. About closing military bases, you must not have been in during the Clinton administration. And you definitely weren't in the Navy during that time period, because the Navy was hit the hardest by budget cuts. If you were, you would have seen plenty of base closures. NTC Orlando and NTC San Diego were just two of them. I am sure there must be a list of bases that Clinton closed available online somewhere if you want to check it. EDIT: Alright, you anonymous "thumbs down" people, explain yourselves in a logical manner instead of just being anonymous! What was inaccurate about what I said?