8/3/2019 Congress Can Fix Its Man-made Postal Woes

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Congress can fix its postal woes2:50 PM, Dec. 2, 2011 by Chet McKee

It is important that we all understand why we are losing the general mail facility. The Republicans like torepeat the myth that the Post Office is not profitable and receives “bailouts.” That is false. The cause of the

financial distress is a Congressional act designed for the sole purpose of destroying the the largest

governmental union and to transfer postal service to private industry (i.e. Wall Street).

In 2006, a lame duck GOP Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA). It was

signed into law by President G.W. Bush on Dec. 20, 2006. The Republican majority insisted it be passed by

voice vote with no record of how anyone voted.

The primary provision of the PAEA was to mandate that the Postal Service fully “pre-fund’’ future retiree

health benefits for the next 75 years and to do it within a 10-year window. This means that the Postal

Service is required to pay the U.S. Treasury $5.5 billion each Sept. 30. This pay for the future retirementhealth benefits of people who haven’t even been born yet. The Postal Service is the only entity that is

mandated to do this. No government agency, corporation or organization is required to fully pre-fund future

retirees’ health benefits, let alone for 75 years ... in 10 years.

Without the PAEA, the USPS has had a net profit of $611 million.

The savvy management at the USPS was still able to come up with the funds. Congressional mandates have

caused the USPS to overpay into its two retirement systems, the Civil Service Retirement System by $50

billion, and the Federal Employees Retirement System around $7 billion. Congress can fix the problem by

passing H.R 1351, the United States Postal Service Pension Obligation Recalculation and Restoration Act of 

2011. This bill does not cut jobs or services. The bill was introduced by Steven Lynch and has 211 co-

sponsors. This bill will not cost the citizens of the United States a penny. It will simply transfer the

overpayments in the retirement system into the future retiree health care obligation. This bill would make

the USPS the only company in the United States with two fully funded pensions and a fully funded current

and future retiree health care benefits plan while running at a net profit. How’s that for sound business

practice?

The Republicans want to “privatize” the Post Office. Do you really think that a private company will deliver to

every address in the United States for 44 cents? Not likely. This is a union-bashing money grab by Wall

Street facilitated by their employees in Congress.

Chet McKee is a former naval officer and aviator, paramedic and educator. He is currently a

speech pathologist working with hearing impaired children. He lives in Fairview.