As this ad details, the Postal Service is in trouble, but it's a wholly
manufactured crisis:
A 2006 postal reform law requires the USPS to pre-fund 75 years' worth of future retiree health benefits within just 10 years. At the behest of the Office of Personnel Management and the Government Accountability Office, and to make the law appear not to cost the government money (i.e., to be “revenue neutral”), Congress included in the law that destructive pre-funding mandate.
No other federal agency or private enterprise is forced to pre-fund similar benefits like this, especially on such an aggressive schedule.
This postal-only mandate costs the USPS $5.5 billion per year. It accounts for 100 percent of the Postal Service’s $20 billion in losses over the past four years.
It also accounts for 100 percent of the rise in the Postal Service’s debt in recent years.
Without the mandate, the USPS would have been profitable over the past four years, and rather than having to use up its $15 billion line of credit from the U.S. Treasury to cover the pre-funding obligation, the Postal Service would have had significant borrowing authority to ride out the bad economy it now faces.
Tuesday afternoon, postal workers and allies are rallying around the country to draw attention to the real source of the Postal Service's problems and encourage Congress to pass H.R. 1351, a legislative fix.
Find an event near you.
Read more (PDF) about the Postal Service's economic situation.