I wanted to share this information that was posted by a United States Postal Carrier who is very close to my heart and a sister by proxy because of their over 40 friendship with my sister!

“On January 27th the United States Postal Service will increase the price of a stamp from fifty cents to fifty-five cents. Since recent news articles are once again decrying the USPS and how much money it is losing I feel the need to once again, as a 33+year employee, set the record straight on a few things:

#1-The United States Postal Service receives NO taxpayer money to fund its’ operations.

#2-Comparing the Postal Service to FedEx and UPS is comparing apples and oranges. While they can pick and choose who they deliver to, the Postal Service is mandated by the United States Constitution and United States Code to deliver to ALL households and businesses at a uniform price, no matter where they are. From the top of One World Trade Center in New York to the bottom of the Grand Canyon the Postal Service must deliver without regard to profit. As a matter of fact, when FedEx and UPS can’t deliver their packages, what do they do? They give them to the Post Office for that last mile and they must be delivered, even if we deliver them at a financial loss.

#3-The Post Office is told to run like a business but it cannot make decisions independent of the Postal Board of Governors and the Postal Rate Commission that are appointed by politicians. The Post Office has almost no flexibility on its pricing.

#4-Postal red ink is directly linked to a 2006 law enacted by a lame-duck session of Congress. That law, The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA) mandated that the Postal Service pay for FUTURE retirees health benefits 75 years into the future BUT it had to be paid within a ten year time frame. Yes, a mandate to prefund benefits for employees who haven’t even been born. So everytime you see “The United States Postal Service lost $5 billion last year…” it is because of this law that requires the Post Office to do what no other public or private business is required to do anywhere in this country. On operations alone, without the pre-funding, the Postal Service turns a profit of about $1 billion a year.

#5-The Post Office was designed to be a service to the entire nation, not a business. One of the first things our founders did was establish a Post Office to bring the nation together. As I said earlier, The United States Postal Service is mandated to deliver the 153.4 billion pieces of mail to 142 million addresses every year. So if it is a service to all Americans it can’t operate like a business any more than the Defense Department can or the Veterans Administration or NASA. No one says they must show a profit for their labors.”

That’s what’s in “My Rattled Cage”! Thank you for stopping by!