The USPS is running out of money mostly because Congress made them set up fully paid retirement fund for 75 years of employees.
Trump has said he would veto congressional aid to support the post office.
USPS creation was mandated by the Constitution.
what is your thoughts.
When somebody is President of the United States, the authority is total
Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution reads as follows:
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
Specifically, Congress was granted the power to “establish” a Post Office. However, the wording is not in such a way as mandates exclusivity in running such Post Office.
I believe that the Congress can constitutionally privatize the Post Office, with a mandate that a specific set of services and certain standards of coverage be met.
Many countries, including European nations have successfully privatized their postal services.
I support full privatization, an action that would allow the new private owners to adopt a more efficient operating plan.
But if Congress made them set up this fully funded pension plan, shouldn’t it be Congress’ responsibility to fund it?
If it’s privatized, can they get out of doing the fully funded pensions except for those grandfathered in?
Congress would likely have to completely remove the fully funded pension requirement for all employees before they could unload the Post Office.
even for the employee not born yet?
The fully funded pension requirement was a mandate on the Postal Service, not a guarantee to employees. Just a requirement that it be funded in advance and not on a pay as you go basis.
I remember when that happened. I also read at the time that both UPS and FedEx were making a lot of noise with the feds on how either one of them could handle the workload and save the government money at the same time. I would think that the feds would have to find all of those folks at the USPS other government jobs. Wouldn’t that be fun. I remember when the USPS made money every year. I think that they really got the short end of the deal a few years back.
UPS/FEDEX ground shipping is around 10$ for a letter.
USPS ground shipping is around .50$
The USPS could easily make money if Congress didn’t make it impossible for them to do so.
The mandate exist solely so USPS would run out of money, so it could be shut down.
Just found an article about this from 2018:
Then there is the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA), which some have taken to calling “the most insane law” ever passed by Congress. The law requires the Postal Service, which receives no taxpayer subsidies, to prefund its retirees’ health benefits up to the year 2056. This is a $5 billion per year cost; it is a requirement that no other entity, private or public, has to make. If that doesn’t meet the definition of insanity, I don’t know what does. Without this obligation, the Post Office actually turns a profit. Some have called this a “manufactured crisis.” It’s also significant that lots of companies benefit from a burden that makes the USPS less competitive; these same companies might also would benefit from full USPS privatization, a goal that has been pushed by several conservative think tanks for years.
The other side of the problem for USPS is that congress has also limited USPS rate increases.
…which should have already been done. The government involves too much useless politics in business that would prosper more without it. Efficiency is thrown out of the window and government run organizations become a black hole of losses. The postal service needs to be privatized.
The job of the USPS is to deliver mail, not make money.
…but levy the appropriate expense to at least break even, in accomplishing this task.
Why is it that some believe privatization is always better. Sure, sometimes it works, but one can always find an equal number of cases where it didn’t. Same with deregulation.
The government privatized the running of military housing and that’s turned into a complete ■■■■show.
Sure… if we want the rural parts of the country to pay more than the cities to get mail… then let’s go for it.
Yep… selling off government services to private interests is the raison d’etre for the modern conservative movement.
The idea that an essential government service must turn a profit is really weird.
No, it doesn’t.
