How to Save the Post Office

As you know, the U.S. Postal Service is about to lay off thousands of workers and/or eliminate some of its services.  And if you listen to the mainstream “media” you probably think the Post Office is in such dire straits because of corrupt unions, or because they’re all just a bunch of faceless inefficient government bureaucrats who don’t care.

FACT:  The Post Office is drowning in red ink because of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. 

Here’s another link.

This law was passed at the end of 2006 by the lame duck Republican Congress.  Under this law, the Post Office was required to pre-fund the health care benefits of all retirees over the next 75 years.  And these huge payments had to be made during a ten-year period.

No other government agency — and no private company — is required to do anything remotely similar to this.  As of this past June, the U.S. Postal Service had a deficit of $19.5 billion.  At that same time, the Postal Service had already made pre-payments of $20.95 billion, as required by the above-mentioned Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.

If that law hadn’t been passed, the Post Office would have a surplus of almost $1.5 billion.

And now, to fix the problem:  Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) has introduced a bill that would allow the Post Office to spend more of its own funds to pay down its deficit.  This bill is bipartisan, with 193 co-sponsors so far.  This is the sensible intelligent solution — for Congress to un-create the problem that it created five years ago.

Or there’s the teatard solution:  Darrell Issa (R—Car Thief) is pushing to lay off thousands of postal workers and break the back of the USPS Union.  Figures.