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I'm as libertarian, small government as they come, but in defense of the post office... they at least operate completely on taxes paid only by those who freely choose to utilize the service. They also are specifically enumerated in the US constitution as one of the few roles the federal government is supposed to fulfill. Some will say there are some government payments but they are a trade for some of the "free" services the PO provides for the blind and handicapped, the armed forces, and congressional mailings. They are a tiny piece of the budget. They do get special tax status because they are of course the federal government. The same kind of things enjoyed by say the military or forest service. On top of that they are by far the most efficient and lowest cost postal service in the world. If even 1/2 of the rest of the federal government worked as well we would be much better off. Of couse I might be a bit biased with 20 years with them now LOL!
As far as the trucks go, if they get as many as planned for the price they are talking they will be spending the money well, about $25,000 a piece and warrantied. You can hardly buy an off the shelf Promaster van for what they are talking about spending per unit on fully customized, purposely built trucks some of them like the hybrid in this thread.
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