GUEST COMMENTARY: Why the Postal Service is facing a financial crisis

The Postal Service has lost $20 billion between 2007 and 2010 and is fast approaching its $15 billion debt limit. Although mail volume is falling, the Internet is not killing the Postal Service, and neither is the weak economy.

The Postal Service is in trouble because of a Bush-era (2006) law that requires the USPS to prefund massively the cost of retiree health benefits over the next 75 years in just 10 years time. This cost covers not only current employees but also employees who have yet to be hired — and it is on top of the cost for health benefits for current retirees.

The $20 billion deficits over the past four years is a direct result of the $21 billion in prefunding payments dictated by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. In the absence of this mandate, the USPS would have been moderately profitable over this period despite the worst recession in 80 years. Also, no other federal agency is required to prefund future retiree health benefits.

Two external audits in 2010 (the Hay Group and the Segal Co.) found a pension surplus of between $50 billion and $75 billion overpayment in the postal portion of the Civil Service Retirement System, which Congress refused to acknowledge. Plus another $6.9 billion surplus in the Federal Employee Retirement System pension plan.

The Postal Service is the second-largest employer next to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. with 560,000 taxpaying employees. It would have annual sales of $67 billion in profitable dollars were it not for the Bush-era law. We don't need to shift to a five-day delivery and destroy another 80,000 jobs in this economy.

USPS delivers 40 percent of the world's mail, serving 150 million households and businesses six days a week. Private companies such as FedEx and UPS deliver only five days a week to about 20 million addresses a day. In fact, a review of the performance of universal postal service found USPS has the best overall ranking among mail delivery agencies in the G20 group of the world's wealthiest nations. We are the business model for the world.

There are answers to the Postal Service concerns contained in Title 1 of Senate Bill 1010, Sen. Tom Carper's bill, and House Bill 1351, sponsored by Rep. Stephen Lynch and co-sponsored by 169 other representatives from both parties.

Unfortunately, our political leaders in Washington would sooner destroy this agency for selfish reasons. Why?

Carl A. Bernacky, of Dyer, is a retired letter carrier. The opinions are the writer's.