Post by Odysseus on Aug 16, 2020 7:32:16 GMT
Trump is correct that the USPS has net losses on its balance sheets, but not because of its operating costs. “The underlying financial problem was the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which put an absurd, onerous, and unheard-of burden that no other company and no other agency has to face,” Dimondstein says. The USPS actually makes a modest profit based on its current operating revenue and costs, but the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act forced the USPS to start funding retirees’ health benefits in advance for the next 75 years, saving for employees who aren’t even born yet.
These retirement savings were also mandated to be invested in low-yielding Treasury bonds, Sauber says, which have therefore earned much less interest than even the standard thrift savings plan, the government equivalent to a private company’s 401(k). This law also makes the USPS the third-largest creditor of the U.S. Treasury, Sauber says.
“The underlying financial problem was the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which put an absurd, onerous, and unheard-of burden that no other company and no other agency has to face.”
The Trump administration’s solution to this artificially manufactured financial struggle is not to support the USPS Fairness Act, H.R. 2382, which would repeal the pre-funding burden, but instead to open up the Postal Service to private interests. The government’s recommended approach risks the USPS’s universal-service requirement, which guarantees service to anyone no matter where they live in the U.S., whether that’s a traffic-dense urban center or rural and remote communities.
These retirement savings were also mandated to be invested in low-yielding Treasury bonds, Sauber says, which have therefore earned much less interest than even the standard thrift savings plan, the government equivalent to a private company’s 401(k). This law also makes the USPS the third-largest creditor of the U.S. Treasury, Sauber says.
“The underlying financial problem was the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which put an absurd, onerous, and unheard-of burden that no other company and no other agency has to face.”
The Trump administration’s solution to this artificially manufactured financial struggle is not to support the USPS Fairness Act, H.R. 2382, which would repeal the pre-funding burden, but instead to open up the Postal Service to private interests. The government’s recommended approach risks the USPS’s universal-service requirement, which guarantees service to anyone no matter where they live in the U.S., whether that’s a traffic-dense urban center or rural and remote communities.