Recent focus on the financial troubles of the U.S. Postal Service has led to calls for its rescue by Congress. Yet this threatens to become a partisan tug-of-war. It doesn’t need to be that way.
The Postal Service began under Benjamin Franklin. It has been a great benefit to our country. We still depend on it, especially rural areas that might not be profitable for commercial delivery businesses to serve.
And in Utah, we have a wonderful, convenient vote-by-mail system that depends on the efficiency and reliability of the Postal Service.
The financial woes of the Postal Service are not due to mismanagement, but to a 2006 law that required the service, alone among government agencies, to prepay billions of dollars into a health care fund for retirees, 75 years ahead. No other agency has that burden.
According to the Institute for Policy Studies, “If (these costs) were removed from the USPS financial statements, the Post Office would have reported operating profits in each of the last six years.”
The plight of the Postal Service should not be a partisan issue. Conservatives and liberals alike should want the USPS to continue serving the citizens and providing reliable mail delivery.
I ask our Congressional delegation to support legislation repealing the 2006 health fund mandate and ensure that the Postal Service is adequately funded to function far into the future.
Alan Wessman
Spanish Fork