Disclosure: I am a practicing attorney with a one-client practice. My client is the United States Postal Service.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here do not represent the United States Postal Service in any capacity whatsoever and whoever suggested that they did would be completely insane.
The Associated Press reliably went out of its way today to mislead folks about an important story on the future of the United States Postal Service. The Postmaster General released a plan to reverse USPS losses in the next 10 years and and make the company competetive and viable without resort to government subsidies that went out under Reagan.
The offensive headline: Never on Saturday.
The story itself predictably misses the point as well. By the way, for those interested in the actual story, skip AP. Go here.
Quickly first, the headline offended me because it portrayed the story as the exact opposite of what it is. The story is not about service cuts, as AP's headline would have it, but about how America can have a viable and continuing, universal national postal network. I also say it's mighty rude to so trivialize a story about something that is going to touch the lives of just about everyone in this country in the next few years, no matter what anybody does.
The Postal Service has operated in the public interest (it's called "universal service") but without taxpayer subsidy since the 1980's. Now the Postal Service faces average losses of $24 billiona year over the next 10 years if Congress doesn't ease regulatory, fiscal and competetive constrains on Postal Service operations.
Consider this:
The United States Postal Service® is facing the most urgent financial challenge in its history. Unfortunately, the tools it has to respond to the challenge are not sufficient. Constraints imposed by current laws and regulations make it nearly impossible for the Postal Service to successfully respond to the combined effects of the economic recession, the diversion of mail to electronic alternatives, and the statutory requirement that it pre-pay $5.4 to $5.8 billion every year through 2017 to a future retirees’ health benefits fund. Fundamental restructuring of the Postal Service’s business and regulatory framework is essential.
The Republican responseto this is perfectly predictable:
But Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the top Republican on committees that oversee the Postal Service, said Tuesday that she was "concerned" about the "aggressive action" proposed by Potter.
"If you cut back services, you're going to lose customers," she said. Collins said that any move to raise rates beyond the rate of inflation, which Potter is considering, would "cause a lot of businesses to look elsewhere." She said the agency "has not come to grips with the 21st century" and that its business model is "just flawed."
You go girl. Your party line orthodoxy would impress the most dedicated Marxist.
America has a kind of weird deal with its Postal Service. Nobody has to do business with the Postal Service. The only way the Postal Service gets revenue is by providing products and services to willing business customers and consumers. The Postal Service has zero taxpayer support. The problem with this deal? TANSTAAFL.
Yet, at the same time, Congress itself feeds off Postal Service revenues, the aforementioned "requirement that it pre-pay $5.4 to $5.8 billion every year through 2017 to a future retirees’ health benefits fund". Congress requires this of no other federal employer. What up with that, dude?
Congress also dictates days of service, restricts rate increases and the ability of the company to offer products and services; some members interfere, for purposes of local political gain or otherwise, with efforts by the Postal Service to achieve economies in its operation by consolidating and modernizing operations. Congressional opposition to closure of local post offices is widespread.
So, it looks to me like America is trying to get something for nothing in its relationship with the Postal Service and that doesn't seem very realistic. Something will have to give, and as Tom Wolfe noted in The Right Stuff, it can blow at any seam.
The rest of the big news is that the Postal Service has figured out a regulatory strategy to implement some measures under emergency provisions from the 2006 Postal Reform Act. But from Congress it needs a smorgasbord of statutory modifications and, by the way, ease off on the goddamned interference.
It's only fair that if we want the Postal Service to support the nation in ways the nation won't pay for, then we at least ought to back off and let it get on with the job. Many initiatives have already begun at USPS, but some stall because of continued, unresolved budgetary and regulatory issues.
Let USPS deliver for you, America. You gave us a pretty tough job, but we think we have a plan that can give the country what it needs from a postal service in better ways than ever, preserve USPS's core committments to affordable products and services and universal service, while restoring sustainability to operations. Just get off our ass and let as try. OK?