Liberal Talk Radio

The Postal Service understands that less mail means less work:

A plan to help New Yorkers keep unwanted mail at bay is encountering resistance from the very organization in charge of delivering it: the United States Postal Service.

Facing a potential $1 billion deficit, the postal service is fighting back against a proposal to create a “do not mail” list in New York, as well as against 17 other “do not mail” bills in other states.

The “do not mail” proposal before the state Senate, introduced by Senator Carl Kruger, a Democrat of Brooklyn, would allow residents to add their names to a state registry and keep unwanted mail away. Violators would be fined $1,000 for each infraction, and income from the fines would be used to promote the registry.

Postmaster General John Potter took up the issue in the U.S. Senate this week, testifying before a subcommittee on Wednesday that if the “do not mail” bills were approved they would “threaten the viability of mail in and among the affected states” and “come at the expense of jobs, the viability of local businesses and the reduction in municipal, county, and state revenue,” according to his prepared statement.

Mr. Kruger, who first introduced the bill in 2007, said it’s not his fault the postal system survives off of third-class bulk mail. “That’s their problem,” he said.