Article Title: Letter to the editor: USPS' financial future much brighter than reported
Snippet of Article: "... Mail fell following the worst recession in 80 years, dropping 10 percent in 2009 alone. But as the economy gradually improves, mail revenue has stabilized. Meanwhile, with online shopping growing because of the Internet, package revenue is skyrocketing, auguring well for the future. Year-to-date, package revenue's up 11.2 percent over last year and mail revenue is up slightly.
As a result, the Postal Service reported $1.4 billion in operating profits in fiscal year 2014, a figure already surpassed in 2015's first half with $1.413 billion.
Postal red ink stems not from the mail but from congressional politics. In 2006, a lame-duck Congress mandated that the Postal Service pre-fund retiree health benefits. No other agency or company has to pre-fund for even one year; the Postal Service must pre-fund 75 years into the future and pay for it all over a decade. That $5.6 billion annual charge is the red ink.
Unnecessarily degrading now-profitable postal networks would hurt Americans and their businesses, weaken the Postal Service's bottom line by driving mail away - and ignore the cause of the red ink. ..."
Source: www.federalnewsradio.com
