The U.S. Postal Service is broke, right?
No.
John Nichols explains:
“At the behest of the Republican-controlled Congress of the Bush-Cheney era, the USPS has been forced since 2006 to pre-fund future retiree health benefits. As the American Postal Workers Union notes, ‘This mandate is the primary cause of the agency’s financial crisis. No other government agency or private company bears this burden, which costs the USPS approximately $5.5 billion annually.’”
–John Nichols, “The Post Office is Not Broke,” The Nation
USPS is legally obligated to serve every location in the United States at the same uniform rate. That requires the Post Office to hire so many workers that, with 574,000 full-time employees, it is the second largest civilian employer in the nation. That’s the size of the insurance pool USPS must pre-fund every year.
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Tags: Federal Budget, mail, post office, U.S. Postal Service, United States Postal Service, USPS
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January 16, 2013 at 12:40 am
[…] of the Republican congressmen who saddled the Postal Service with staggering retirement health fund obligations not imposed on private corporations and then complain that the USPS is in the hole. Many of those […]