"Postal Service red ink is unrelated to the mail or the internet. Rather, it stems from Washington politics. ... Congress mandated that the Postal Service prefund future retiree health benefits. ... That $5.6 billion annual charge is the red ink."

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COMMENTS:
*  Postal management blames the reduced volume on the internet; while this may be true, the real ,value is sending bills and correspondence with the USPS. It is less expensive and cannot be hacked.
*  FACT: Tax dollars are NOT used to pay mailmen. FACT: Postal rates are determined by the Board Of Governors, NOT the post office. FACT: If it wasn't for the prefunding mandate Bush championed in 2006, the postal service would be making money...LOTS of it. FACT: Both UPS AND FedEX regularly pass their packages onto the postal service to deliver for them, because they lack the facilities to do it themselves. FACT: Rural carriers are paid in an entirely different way than city carriers, thus getting done early is a benefit because they get paid the same anyway. FACT: The postal service regularly seeks to reprimand carriers who tell the public the truth. FACT: Letter carriers get disciplined via write up when they get bitten by a dog. FACT: Carriers get paid the same whether it's 70 and sunny, or -20 and 10" of snow. FACT: Postal management likes it just fine that the average customer out there is unknowledgable and misinformed about their operations.
*  The previous Christmas, UPS had a meltdown and couldn't deliver all their packages in time for Christmas. So now the USPS delivers a lot of packages FOR them, since we have to go to every address in the country anyway. The Monday before LAST Christmas USPS broke a record and delivered 22 million packages in one day. That's almost ONE package for every 10 people in the country, in one day. That's IN ADDITION to all the cards, letters and magazines on a busy Monday.
*  Congress knows nothing about running a profitable business and should get out of the way. Let the USPS pay into the Pension Guarantee Fund like every other business (Except the government who expects the taxpayer to provide full benefits forever). Are they afraid that the USPS would actually compete for the more profitable segments occupied by Fedex and UPS and move away from letters. Why not, consumers would gain from increased competition.
*  News Flash! Most of our proplems are caused by Professional Politician from the top down. Who created the National Debt? Who manages to screwup America PROFESSIONAL POLITICIAN and the Stupid Citizens that Keep electing these JERKs
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My Turn: Postal Service red ink was created by politicians
By Fredric Rolando, August 1, 2015

A recent “My Turn” (Monitor Opinion, July 13) cast U.S. Postal Service problems somewhat oddly, seeking to blame the slowing of the mail in states with large rural populations, such as New Hampshire, on a focus on “metropolitan centers like San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and New York.” While it’s valid to point out the postal woes in small towns and rural areas, pitting some populations against others doesn’t get us closer to a solution. So perhaps it’s time for some straight talk about the actual situation.

Degradation of service affects everyone, whether in Concord or San Francisco. When mail-processing facilities close, people face mail delays.

If Saturday mail delivery is eliminated, as some lawmakers in Washington, D.C., propose, small businesses in Merrimack County – or New York City – won’t receive weekend checks or orders. And veterans, the elderly and millions more will wait longer for government benefits or other important items.

Similarly, if door-to-door delivery ends, people everywhere will traipse around neighborhoods (including in New Hampshire weather!) seeking a cluster box.

Bottom line: Threats to mail service target everyone, not just specific regions. The real question is why Americans’ mail service is threatened, and what can be done about it.

Conventional wisdom would say this: Growing internet usage to pay bills or send greetings causes the Postal Service to lose billions of dollars a year, taxpayers are on the hook, so services must be degraded.

But that formulation’s demonstrably false.

For starters, postal operations are profitable. The Postal Service reported $1.4 billion in operating profits in Fiscal Year 2014, a figure already surpassed halfway through 2015.

After dropping during the Great Recession, mail revenue is stabilizing amid an improving economy. Meanwhile, as Concord residents shop online, skyrocketing package revenue makes the internet a net positive, auguring well for the future.

Moreover, taxpayers aren’t involved with postal finances – by law, the Postal Service earns its revenue by selling stamps and services.

Postal Service red ink is unrelated to the mail or the internet. Rather, it stems from Washington politics. In 2006, a lame-duck Congress mandated that the Postal Service prefund future retiree health benefits. No other entity has to prefund for even one year; the Postal Service must prefund 75 years into the future and pay for it all over a decade. That $5.6 billion annual charge is the red ink.

Some in Washington hope to use this artificial financial “crisis” to destroy the Postal Service, even turn its duties over to private corporations.

To do so, they need you to believe that services you rely on are the problem – so your mail must be slowed, your delivery days reduced, your door-to-door service ended.

But degrading profitable postal networks is illogical. It would needlessly hurt people from New Hampshire’s farms to its cities. It would hurt the Postal Service’s bottom line, by driving mail away. It would ignore the actual problem – the prefunding mandate. And it would cost New Hampshire jobs. The national mailing industry, dependent on a six-days-a-week Postal Service, employs 7.5 million Americans in the private sector – including 63,689 Granite State residents.

The Postal Service, based in the Constitution, unifies this vast nation. It’s the largest employer of veterans. Every day on their routes, letter carriers save elderly residents who’ve fallen or taken ill, remove people from burning cars after accidents, find missing children or stop crimes in progress.

New Hampshirites should urge their congressional representatives to preserve the postal networks while addressing the prefunding fiasco. Then the Postal Service can continue to offer Americans, whether in our metropolitan centers or smallest towns, the world’s most affordable delivery network.

(Fredric Rolando is president of the National Association of Letter Carriers.)
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