The Truth About the U.S. Postal Service

The Truth About the U.S. Postal Service

 

by Jim Hightower

 

Creators.com

March 27, 2012

 

http://www.creators.com/opinion/jim-hightower/the-truth-about-the-u-s-postal-service.html

 

What does 50 cents buy these days? Not a cuppa joe, a pack

of gum or a newspaper. But you can get a steal of deal for a

50-cent piece: a first-class stamp. Plus a nickel in change.

 

Each day, six days a week, letter carriers traverse 4

million miles toting an average of 563 million pieces of

mail, reaching the very doorsteps of our individual homes

and workplaces in every single community in America. From

the gated enclaves and penthouses of the uber-wealthy to the

inner-city ghettos and rural colonies of America's poorest

families, the U.S. Postal Service literally delivers. All

for 45 cents. The USPS is an unmatched bargain, a civic

treasure, a genuine public good that links all people and

communities into one nation.

 

So, naturally, it must be destroyed.

 

For the past several months, the laissez-fairyland

blogosphere, assorted corporate front groups, a howling pack

of congressional right-wingers and a bunch of lazy mass

media sources have been pounding out a steadily rising

drumbeat to warn that our postal service faces impending

doom. It's "broke," they exclaim; USPS "nears collapse";

it's "a full-blown financial crisis!"

 

These gloomsayers claim the national mail agency is bogged

down with too many overpaid workers and costly brick-and-

mortar facilities, so it can't keep up with the instant

messaging of Internet services and such nimble corporate

competitors as FedEx. Thus, say these contrivers of their

own conventional wisdom, the Postal Service is unprofitable

and is costing taxpayers billions of dollars a year in

losses. Wrong.

 

Since 1971, the postal service has not taken a dime from

taxpayers. All of its operations - including the remarkable

convenience of 32,000 local post offices - are paid for by

peddling stamps and other products.

 

The privatizers squawk that USPS has gone some $13 billion

in the hole during the past four years - a private

corporation would go broke with that record! (Actually,

private corporations tend to go to Washington rather than go

broke, getting taxpayer bailouts to cover their losses.) The

Postal Service is NOT broke. Indeed, in those four years of

loudly deplored "losses," the service actually produced a

$700 million operational profit (despite the worst economy

since the Great Depression).

 

What's going on here? Right-wing sabotage of USPS financing,

that's what.

 

In 2006, the Bush White House and Congress whacked the post

office with the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act -

an incredible piece of ugliness requiring the agency to PRE-

PAY the health care benefits not only of current employees,

but also of all employees who'll retire during the next 75

years. Yes, that includes employees who're not yet born!

 

No other agency and no corporation has to do this. Worse,

this ridiculous law demands that USPS fully fund this seven-

decade burden by 2016. Imagine the shrieks of outrage if

Congress tried to slap FedEx or other private firms with

such an onerous requirement.

 

This politically motivated mandate is costing the Postal

Service $5.5 billion a year - money taken right out of

postage revenue that could be going to services. That's the

real source of the "financial crisis" squeezing America's

post offices.

 

In addition, due to a 40-year-old accounting error, the

federal Office of Personnel Management has overcharged the

post office by as much as $80 billion for payments into the

Civil Service Retirement System. This means that USPS has

had billions of its sales dollars erroneously diverted into

the treasury. Restore the agency's access to its own postage

money, and the impending "collapse" goes away.

 

The post office is more than a bunch of buildings - it's a

community center and, for many towns, an essential part of

the local identity, as well as a tangible link to the rest

of the nation. As former Sen. Jennings Randolph poignantly

observed, "When the local post office is closed, the flag

comes down." The corporatizer crowd doesn't grasp that going

after this particular government program is messing with the

human connection and genuine affection that it engenders.

 

America's postal service is a true public service, a

grassroots people's asset that has even more potential than

we're presently tapping to serve the democratic ideal of the

common good. Why the hell would we let an elite of small-

minded profiteers, ranting ideologues and their political

hirelings drop-kick this jewel through the goal posts of

corporate greed? This is not a fight merely to save 32,000

post offices and the middle-class jobs they provide - but to

advance the BIG IDEA of America itself, the bold, historic

notion that "yes, we can" create a society in which we're

all in it together.

 

c 2012 Creators.com

 

Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against The

Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That

Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and

just-plain-folks.