Postal managers are being directed to cut jobs and services, to reduce costs, at any cost. That "any cost" is the service we provide to you.
Everyone blames the poor economy, the falling mail volume and the Internet.
Our real problem is Congress. Although mail volume is falling, the Internet is not killing the Postal Service and neither is the weak economy. A congressional mandate is killing the Postal Service.
The Postal Service is in trouble because of a Bush-era law that requires the Postal Service to massively pre-fund the cost of retiree health benefits over the next 75 years in just 10 years' time. This cost covers not only current employees, but employees who have yet to be hired — and is on top of the cost for health benefits for current retirees. No other company or agency in America is required to pre-fund future retiree health benefits. The Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund already has more than $42 billion in it — more than enough to cover retiree health premiums for the next 20 years.
You have read myriad reports of the possible bankruptcy of the Postal Service. In the absence of the congressional mandate, the Postal Service would have been modestly profitable over this period despite the worst recession in 80 years, and it would still have borrowing authority left.
