During the partial government shutdown, why was the U.S. Postal Service still in full operation? It's simple: The postal service doesn't receive government money.
All of its funding comes from the sales and services of its products. Actually, monies flow in the opposite direction. Since 2006, the postal service has had to give the federal government $5.5 billion per year, ostensibly to pre-fund, over 10 years, the insurance benefits of retirees 75 years into the future.
Add to that the fact that its two retirement plans are overfunded by $50 billion to $75 billion and that Congress, which controls all of this, has been unwilling to end the pre-funding debacle and has refused to return the overfunded money to the postal service, and you can understand why it has reached its $15 billion debt limit.
Without those problems, the postal service would have been in the black every year.
Your taxes do not fund its operations.
The mail can continue to be delivered through rain, snow, sleet and hail, but it may not be able to survive the follies of Congress.
Louis M. Philips
Schenectady