Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives the Congress the power “...to establish Post Offices and post Roads.” The Constitution doesn’t mention the F.B.I. or the C.I.A. or the I.R.S., but it actually mentions the Post Office.
Today Linda and I attended a rally at the Lackawanna County Courthouse in Scranton to support the letter carriers in their effort to keep post offices open six days a week. The U.S. Postal Service, which has been losing money, has proposed ending Saturday service.
The reasons the U.S.P.S. is losing money are many. It is in competition with the internet. (When’s the last time you wrote a letter?) It serves rural areas where few people live. It must deliver a piece of paper from Florida to Alaska in three days for half a buck. It provides a service that in most countries is not expected to make money--that’s why it’s a government service. But the main reason it is in the red is because it has been required to fund pensions many years into the future--something no other federal agency is required to do.
When have you heard of a business in trouble deciding the way to regain profitability was to reduce service to its customers?
Finally, guess which business in the U.S. employs the most U.S. veterans? Not Wal-Mart. Not Starbucks. It’s the United States Postal Service.
Well said!!
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