This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
If fully implemented, his scheme will wreck USPS. However, claiming a fiscal crisis is duplicitous. USPS serves 150 million households and businesses daily. Operating as an independent US government agency, it's America's second largest employer after Wal-Mart.
It's not troubled by Internet competition or changed letter-writing habits. It's because Congress forced USPS to pay about $5.5 billion annually into a trust fund for future retiree healthcare and pension benefits.
It's currently over-funded by $75 billion. Moreover, USPS is burdened with other charges and obligations. As a result, it appears troubled. Treating the System equitably and fairly would change things. Instead, slash and burn is planned.
On December 7, Ralph Nader 's article headlined, "Time to Save the Post Office," saying:
It's "headling for a free fall due to bad management, corporate barracudas, and a bevy of editors and reporters enamoured with the supremacy of the Internet which makes up their world."Donahue's strategy stresses cuts, service delays, and higher prices. That's a "sure description for continuing decline....He mistakenly thinks closing additional USPS facilities" won't affect revenues.
At issue is no federal funding combined and billions paid annually for future retirees as explained above. Congress is considering corrective legislative action. Without it, USPS will face greater losses.
It's the only federal government creditor, operating as a hybrid public corporation. At the same time, it's "been run into the ground on the installment plan by commercial competitors aggressively taking advantage of" bad management under a corporate Board of Governors "ideologically rooting for corporate privatizers."
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
5
3
1
