There's one aspect of the Post Office I haven't seen mentioned here. It's called the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act and was signed into law on Dec. 20, 2006.
In accordance with the law, the Post Office is required to pay almost $5 BILLION dollars EVERY YEAR to the federal government. Basically, it requires the Post Office to prepay employee retirement and health insurance benefits for the next 75 years over a 10 year year period for employees who haven't even been born yet.
So, when you hear that the Post Office lost 5 Billion dollars last year for example, the reality is that if it weren't for this 5 Billion a year mandate, the Post Office would have made almost $1 Billion in profit last year. To date, the Post Office has paid almost 40 Billion to the federal government. No other company in history has ever been forced to do this.
This mandate was designed to starve the Post Office. Service cuts are being made, hubs are closing, the quality of service is declining, and prices are rising, exactly what the bill was designed to do.
Why? There are several main reasons.
The Postal Union is one of the largest unions in the country. If the Post Office can be put out of business, the union would go out of business as well.
The hope is that the functions of the Post Office will be turned over to Fedex and UPS. However, currently, Fedex and UPS don't deliver to approx. 40% of the addresses in the country. For these deliveries, they have an agreement with the Post Office and the PO finishes the delivery.
So, for all of you who live in rural areas, the plan is for you to lose your Post Office and Postal service. Do you really think Fedex and UPS will deliver a letter for 48 cents. Do you really think Fedex and UPS will visit every address in the country 6 days a week like the Post Office currently does? And if you live on a rural delivery route, do you really think Fedex or UPS will drive out to you. Yea, neither do I.
Before this law was passed, the Post Office was doing fairly well. In fact, they were seriously considering going to 100% electric vehicles. Imagine the shot in the Arm that would have given to the Electric Vehicle industry, and our environment.
And, to make matters worse, what the Post Office can and can't do is controlled by Congress. The Post Office gets NO government money, 100% of what they earn is by selling postage. If they could, they would offer all kinds of additional services, such as pack and ship services, computer terminals, and even banking services for unbanked americans.
The PO has been saddled with this never before seen mandate with the hopes of forcing it to close. Do you really want to live in a country with no Post Office? That's what third world countries do, not us.
Virtually every year since the law was passed and signed in 2006, Democrats have sponsored bills to repeal this law. In most cases, those repeal laws were filibustered in the Senate. To date, there is an excess of $40 BILLION dollars of Post Office money in the federal coffers. Democrats have also tried to have those funds refunded to the Post Office to no avail.
Before you attack me, look it up. Search and read about the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. We're all entitled to our own opinions, but not our own facts. What's been happening to the Post Office is a fact, again, look it up.
As Ebay sellers, shipping rates are critical to our businesses. If you aren't happy with proposed PO rate increases, contact your Congress reps and Senators and tell them you want an end to the Postal Accountability and Enforcement Act. Also tell them you want the $40+ Billion dollars already paid refunded to the Post Office. Imagine what that sudden influx of capital would do for our Post Office.
