Destroying the Postal Service is destroying a foundation of democracy
Editor:
Good article on the post office (in Dumont); however, Ian Neligh neglected to mention one thing: the reason the post office is in trouble.
In 2006, a lame-duck Republican Congress passed a mandate requiring the post office to fund pensions 75 years in advance at a cost of $5.5 billion a year.
Before this, the post office was very profitable. Why was this done? The Postal Service has one of the largest unions in the country, the APWU. Republicans hate unions. Their goal is to privatize the post office, destroy the union and cut workers’ pensions to almost nothing.
The post office is the only federal program actually authorized in the original constitution. Everyone gets mail. If you never spend a dime on postage, you still get mail six days a week. That’s public service; that’s big government at work.
Destroying the U.S. Postal Service is destroying a foundation of American democracy, which, of course, is why the Republicans are determined to do just that.
Donald Reimer
Idaho Springs