Tom Carper

I would welcome the thoughts of General Donahoe on this.

I am willing to make tough choices to make him successful and us successful in accomplishing that.

At risk as well are the approximately 8 million jobs that depend on its continued vitality.

Encouraging an approach to financial problems that would facilitate potentially large rate increases and service cuts, cuts needlessly and undermines the beneficial features of the bill.

We find ourselves closer than we have ever been to losing the vital services that the Postal Service offers to all of us.

I am willing to pay some more taxes. I just do not want you to waste the money.

I think in a very smart, thoughtful way that can grow revenues by a half-billion dollars or more a year.

Rather than closing 3,000 or 4,000 post offices, you have come up with a way you can actually continue to keep post offices open

We recognize that we want to take that in and then we want to work some more.

Our bill attempts to permanently address the Postal Service's longstanding health and pension issues and right-size its processing and delivery network.

We can always do everything better.

I want to thank Senator Johnson, who is faithful.

The Postal Service is unique in this country. Nobody else goes to every mailbox, virtually every door, business and residential, in this country 5 or 6 days a week.

One of my top goals has been to not just help the Postal Service get by, but to help it be strong once again

The Chairman and I are committed to getting this done.

My goal with this bill, and I believe Dr. Coburn's goal as well, is to enact a set of reforms that are fair to really three groups of people.

I applaud the way that you have really tried to right-size the enterprise.

The Postal Service deserves a great deal of credit for staving off the liquidity problems, but that is going to end within a year.

This situation is unacceptable. It is also avoidable and it calls for urgent action from Congress and the Administration.

Reclaiming my time for a moment--and I note Senator Angus King is patiently sitting over there waiting to speak--I said earlier the cleanest, most affordable form of energy is the energy we never use. The cleanest, most affordable form of…

I feel a sense of urgency and it is just important that all of us feel that sense of urgency.

That is not only the secret for a long union between two people, it is also the secret to a vibrant democracy.

I think you have way too many Committees demanding information from you.

My admonition to my colleagues this morning was that the work that we are doing here is very important. We are not making the kind of progress that we need to make.

We were reminded this morning of the folks who have literally laid down their lives in service to our country.