The Postal Service works efficiently delivering the mail (“Postal Dis-Service, Editorial, Nov. 24).
80 percent of the red ink results not from postal operations, but from a 2006 congressional mandate compelling the agency to pay billions of dollars a year to pre-fund retiree health benefits 75 years into the future. No other agency or company is required to do anything like that.
Using no taxpayer money, the Postal Service provides the world’s most affordable delivery service. It is the centerpiece of a $1.3 trillion national mailing industry with 7.5 million private-sector employees, including 598,349 New Yorkers. Its Saturday delivery is critical to New York’s hundreds of thousands of small businesses.
The Post touts privatization, but doesn’t mention that federal mail delivery derives from the Constitution. If Congress addresses the pre-funding fiasco, the Postal Service can do what it’s done for 200 years — adapt to an evolving society.
Fredric Rolando
President
National Association of
Letter Carriers
Washington, DC