Today the Post Office is in the news for defaulting on a $5.5 billion dollar payment and getting bad press. I think this is the result of another salvo fired by the 1% in its war against the rest of us.
In 2006 the Post Office had a huge surplus so Congress decided the money should be put in a fund to accomodate future health care costs of Post Office retirees for the next 75 years and that $5.5 billion had to be added to the fund each year.
Was this bill the result of poor thinking by Congress or was it a conservative attempt to undermine the Post Office because Postal efficiency makes a lie out of the conservative claim that anything run by the government turns into a huge inefficient bureaucracy?
What better bang for my buck can I get anywhere? Its amazing that I can send a letter 2000 miles in two days for 37--39--41--44 cents. ( You can tell I have been using this argument for a long time by the progression of stamp prices.)
Conservatives are now arguing that the Post Office is losing money because so many of us use the internet instead of writing letters. However, as one of those internet users I now order more items than ever before and those items are delivered to my door by the Post person. So I do not buy that argument.
According to Frederic Relondo (speaking on today's Diane Rehm show) the Post office has two overfunded funded pension funds as well as the $45 billion dollars in the healthcare fund. Also, the Post Office has never used any tax money. It has always supperted itself by postage fees.
Also on the show, Ted Dehaven from the CATO Institute argued that the Post Office should be privatized. He stated "I don't think Congress is capable of running a lemonade stand."
I am sick and tired of these conservative attacks on our Post Office. Congress has manage to do a great job of running the Postal System for over 200 years. If they are no longer capable of running a lemonade stand its time we get new people in Congress.
In my district I will be voting for newcomer Wanda Rohl. I will also be encouraging her to fignt for term limits for all elected government officials.