Congress can, should fix Postal Service problems

The Feb. 15 article, “Obama's call to end Saturday delivery,” states that the U.S. Postal Service is in dire financial straights and expects to lose $14.1 billion this year.

I am tired of the mainstream news media not informing us of the main reason for this loss. In the last quarter, the Postal Service CFO announced a $200 million operating profit turned into massive red ink largely because of the $3.1 billion in pre-funding charges. This is a problem that Congress created and could fix.

The real financial burden facing the postal service is the congressional mandate that the USPS pre-fund future retiree health care benefits for the next 75 years and do so within a decade. The resulting annual payments of $5.5 billion account for more than

85 percent of all the postal service's red ink.

If the postal service is forced to go to five-day delivery, they will reduce the delivery standards and that will open the door to massive mail processing plant closures.

Brian Hamrick

Springville