US Postal Service Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe’s proposed plan would destroy the postal service as most Americans know it and would come not out of necessity but to perpetuate an austerity lie.
The supposed financial crisis facing the US Postal Service is actually a fiscal fantasy. The USPS, which continues to provide vital services to 150 million households and business each day, which sustains rural communities and urban neighborhoods across the country as a Main Street mainstay, which employs hundreds of thousands of Americans and which has a history of being in the forefront of technological and societal progress, is not in trouble because of competition from the Internet or changing letter-writing patterns. It is in crisis because Congress forced the postal service to pay roughly $5.5 billion a year into a trust fund for future retiree pensions 75 years in advance.
The USPS inspector general says the postal service has overfunded pension obligations by $75 billion — something no other federal agency is required to do. In addition, the postal service has been slapped with other charges and obligations that make it appear to be headed for bankruptcy. Simply treating the USPS fairly when it comes to the prepayment of pensions would ease most of the burden facing the postal service.
HR 1351 in the US House of Representatives would reconcile this unreasonable financial situation intended to privatize the USPS. Ask Rep. Cory Gardner to get this bill moving to save the post offices from privatization.
Dolores Williams
Fort Collins