The U.S. Postal Service is at risk of defaulting and may not be able to come up with the money for a $5.5 billion payment due to the government on Sept. 30, according to the New York Times. The paper also said that the Postal Service may be forced to suspend all mail deliveries this winter if something isn't done soon by Congress to shore up its finances.

The service already has said it likely will close at least 3,700 post offices and  300 mail processing plants nationwide as part of cost cutting, resulting in the lost of 220,000 postal jobs (120,000 proposed through layoffs, 100,000 through attrition), and has discussed moving to five-day delivery of mail.

How can this be possible? Has email initiated the demise of the United States Postal Service??

Obviously, the United States Postal Service has suffered tremendous losses over the past several years as email, texting and other forms of communication have increased in popularity, but the answer is NO.

This is the historic fabrication that Republicans would like Americans to believe about the second oldest department or agency of the present United States of America. (Some interesting historic facts about the USPO.)

Let’s set the record straight: If the Postal Service was  not subjected to a USPS-specific congressional mandate to pre-fund future retiree health benefits. As it is, it is the only federal agency required to do so: It must pre-fund these benefits some 75 years into the future on a massively accelerated schedule, which costs the Postal Service $5.5 billion annually.

If it were not for this unique health benefit pre-funding requirement, the Postal Service would have recorded a cumulative profit of $1 billion from 2007 to 2010.

Also, due to an accounting error, legislation also is needed to return a $6.9 billion overpayment into the Federal Employees Retirement System to the Postal Service.

The United States Postal Service is financialy sound. This postal-only mandate accounts for 100 percent of the Postal Service’s $20 billion in losses over the past four years. The $47 billion the Postal Service has deposited into its retiree health fund over the past four years would have been available for operating costs.

The Republicans has bee trying to privatize the US Postal Service for years and on December 20, 2006, President Bush signed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 passed by the Republican led Congress. It was this bill that introduced the health benefit pre-funding requirement that sabotaged the USPS to force the post office out of business and bust the unions.

  The USPS is an independent government agency and is expected to be fully self-financing and receives essentially no tax dollars. It pays for it's operations through the sale of it's services and products. Recognizing the need to address their financial losses themselves, the USPS has put forth a number of proposals about cutting back on the offerings of the Postal Service. Such drastic measures demonstrate the agency’s ability for internal reform, and suggest that privatization is unnecessary to restore its financial balance.

However, proponents for privatization claim that the cost to consumers would be reduced by removing the mail service from government control. How they arrive at this pretense is beyond me. Common sense and market prices suggest otherwise. A 44 cent stamp will get a letter delivered in two to three days. According to USP and FedEx website, two-day delivery of a similar letter to the same destination will cost between $20-30 dollars. Even if you used USPS Priority Mail, it would cost less then $5 dollars.

The loss of the USPS as a low cost competitor would grant USP, FedEx, and other private shipping companies greater ability to increase their costs, secure in the knowledge that consumers has no alternative when sending mail. 

What about online retailers? Do you think they will absorb the increased shipping cost? Of course not, they will pass it onto their customers.

There is bright light - H.R. 1351 (United States Postal Service Pension Obligation Recalculation and Restoration Act of 2011), a bill introduced in the House by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA).

According to the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), "The Lynch bill would prevent the financial collapse of the USPS – without reducing mail delivery, closing thousands of post offices, eliminating hundreds of mail processing facilities, firing 120,000 workers or ending collective-bargaining rights. It would allow the Postal Service to apply billions of dollars in pension overpayments to the congressional mandate that requires the Postal Service to pre-fund the healthcare benefits of future retirees."

"Unfortunately, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has another idea. Word on Capitol Hill is that Rep. Issa is blocking consideration of H.R. 1351. Instead, he has introduced a bill that would destroy the Postal Service as we know it. His bill (H.R. 2309) ignores the cause of the USPS financial crisis: It would do nothing about the pension overpayments or the pre-funding requirement. Rather, it would establish a “solvency authority” with the power to unilaterally cut wages, abolish benefits, and end protection against layoffs. If H.R. 2309 is enacted, thousands of offices throughout the country would be closed.

At the same time, the Postal Service is proposing legislative changes that would authorize management to eliminate Saturday delivery, lay off 120,000 workers and remove postal employees from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and from federal retirement plan"

We, the people must step up and save the United States Postal Service. After all, the Postal Service has served us faithfully for 236 years .

"We are mothers and fathers. And sons and daughters. Who every day go about our lives with duty, honor and pride. And neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. Ever"  -from a USPS TV commercial

 

Online petition in support of H.R. 1351



Save Americas Postal Service website



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