We Really Need to Do This:

It’s about time the postal/customer associations got on board with the importance of dealing with the ‘real problem’ and not the smoke and mirrors about low volume, the internet, labor cost, and recession. The article and the .pdf link makes some very useful arguments [GlennDL]:

From Postal Affairs Blog:

a call for unity from Gene Del Polito, President Association for Postal Commerce
This is a subject we can all agree on and rally around. Take action…

“…Over the years, through the postal rates you pay, you’ve provided way more money than the government actually needs to meet all of the Postal Service’s Civil Service Retirement System obligations. Indeed, the amount of over-funding that’s occurred has been on the order of $50 billion to $75 billion depending on whose assessment you use.
To make matters worse, Congress, through the 2006 postal accountability act, is requiring you to pony up some $5.5 billion a year(!) to pre-fund what the Office of Personnel Management believes the Postal Service’s future obligations will be to cover all the costs of postal retiree health benefits.
That’s right. You’re being coerced into paying $5.5 billion a year, when there’s already a very hefty over-payment on other postal retirement obligations already on the federal treasury’s books…. …This is unconscionable. Mail as a medium for business communication and commerce isn’t dying a natural death. It’s having the fiscal life squeezed out of it by Congress’ unwillingness to address this issue and to begin to permit the use of that CSRS over-payment…”                   read full article

 

also see:  http://www.intelisent.com/uploads/CongressLetter.pdf