In 2006, a congressional mandate required the US Postal Service to pre-fund future retiree benefits 75 years in advance and to complete this pre-funding within 10 years.
This congressional mandate has drained roughly $5.5 Billion annually from the US Postal Service.
No other public or private US agency has ever been burdened with such a mandate. And unlike the vast majority of government agencies and some private industries, USPS receives no tax-payer funding.
This deliberately created shortfall is the reason why Saturday delivery is suddenly “problematic,” why post offices are being closed, why wide-scale postal employee lay-offs are being proposed.
This looks like a calculated attempt to destroy USPS – a public agency – gut it, and privatize its resources.