Government Rationing: Now At a Post Office Near You!

Meredith Jessup | August 31, 2009 3:02 PM

Over at the National Center for Public Policy Research blog, David Almasi describes how DC Post Offices are rationing stamps sold to customers and begs the obvious question: Who is ready for health care?

In trying to secure postage for a large mailing campaign, Almasi and his coworkers could not find one single post office who could sell 3,000 stamps:

Not even the official stamp store attached to the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum - which celebrates the ability of mailmen to deliver to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and to the front lines during wartime, and which has a vault system to handle the valuable bulk quantities of stamps - could spare 3,000 44-cent stamps.

Not a square to spare.

Why? According to some of the counter staff, there is a new district manager overseeing post offices in our area. This manager is setting a limit on how many stamps any one post office can have at any one time. Therefore, area post offices are being forced to ration their stamps. If we bought 3,000 at this point, there might not be enough left later for other customers.

So the U.S. Postal Service turned away our business for lack of resources.

I guess we should just take President Obama's advice and stick with private companies FedEx and UPS. Anyone still interested in that "public option"?

PS--Check out some of the follow-up comments from patrons and postal workers alike about the government's management (in)abilities.