Blame Congress For USPS Fiscal Woes

From the Mercury Opinion: The U.S. Postal Service delivers to 155 million homes and businesses from coast to coast, six and increasingly seven days a week, and is consistently rated the public’s most-trusted federal agency.

There is red ink, but it stems from congressional politics. In 2006, a lame-duck Congress mandated that the postal service pre-fund future retiree health benefits. No other agency or company has to do this even one year in advance; USPS must pre-fund these benefits decades into the future. That $5.8 billion annual charge accounts for the “red ink.”

Addressing this elephant in the room — pre-funding — is imperative given the postal service’s role in improving the quality of life in the communities they serve … (click to read more)