The Oregonian newspaper has an editorial this morning entitled “Post Office: Radical surgery needed” which suggests that some kind of unspecified restructuring is what the USPS needs. Nothing new there- but then the editorial comes up with this amazing bit of information:

It’s even worse than it looks on paper. The agency’s last three years of profits –fiscal years 2003 through 2005 — were largely because of a 2003 law that allowed the Postal Service to reduce its pension payments. Without that law, which merely postponed the date the bill comes due, the Postal Service would still be looking for its first black ink of the 21st century.

As most postal employees and customers know by now, the truth is the exact opposite of what the Oregonian tells its readers: the so-called “pension payments” that were reduced were actually overcharges that Congress decided to leave in place because they make the federal budget deficit look smaller. Without the overcharges, now being redirected into a so-called “trust fund” for future retiree health benefits, the USPS profits in 2003 to 2005 would have been bigger, and the USPS would still have been profitable into the current fiscal year. Apparently if the facts don’t quite fit the argument the Oregonian editorial board creates new ones that do!

via Post Office: Radical surgery needed | OregonLive.com.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 11th, 2010 at 6:21 am and is filed under postal, postal finances. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.