I appreciated the reprint of the Chicago Tribune editorial "SOS from Postal Service," Feb. 11. Unfortunately, it was notable more for what was missing than for its content.
Yes, the Postal Service is losing money, and Congress holds total operational control of this vital public service agency so that necessary modernization and overhauls require congressional compromise. But worse yet and surely lethal to the Postal Service, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 forced the Postal Service to prefund its health care benefit payments to retirees for the next 75 years in an astonishing 10-year time span. Almost no other public agency or private entity does or is required to do that. Before this bill passed, the Postal Service was profitable.
But for this pre-funding travesty, the Postal Service would have had $1 billion in profits between 2006 and 2010. Now, I call that solvent. According to a Feb. 17 article in the Daily Kos, actuarial studies determined in 2010 the Postal Service had a surplus of more than $50 billion in its Civil Service Retirement pension account and nearly $7 billion in its Federal Employees Retirement System account.
Meanwhile, FedEx siphons off a goodly share of postal business under government contract, often leaving the Postal Service with the unprofitable, end-of-the-line daily delivery to every Podunk place too remote and labor-intensive for the private entities to bother with.
It's all part of the long-standing effort to privatize services traditionally provided by government, to turn those services into profit centers for the private sector to exploit. Getting rid of solid middle-class jobs and replacing them with "contract" non-union workers is a vital part of the plan.
As we bemoan the widening gap between rich and poor and the disappearance of the middle class in America, imagine the impact of the loss of millions of solid, middle-class jobs with benefits if the forces of privatization succeed in shutting down the Postal Service.
SUSAN WEBER
Loudonville