The U.S. Postal Service has almost hit its debt ceiling of $15 billion, but why haven't the facts come out? Is there a plan to destroy an institution that was started in 1775 to bind the country together? I think so and the plan started in 2006 (Postal Accountability & Enhancement Act). There are other factors that haven't help the USPS, the Internet (mail volume declined), the worst recession since the Great Depression, mandate to deliver to every address in this country, which keeps growing, and the large increase in gasoline prices.

Well, the USPS has done that and made over $600 million over the last four fiscal years. It wasn't easy, there has been a 110,000 employee reduction in the workforce since 2007. Each employee picked up a larger work load, we increased some revenue in our last mile delivery program (delivering parcels for UPS and FedEx to rural areas where they can't make money), and using technology to be more efficient. Postage rates in America are among the lowest in the industrialized world, relative to wages, stamp prices are among the most affordable anywhere. The USPS is financially self-sufficient, it pays for its operations through the sale of postage and has not received any taxpayer subsidy since 1982.

Send a message

• What: Rally supporting the post office. Sign petittions supporting passage of HR 1351.

• When: 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27

• Where: Congressman Huizenga's district office, 900 Third, Muskegon

Since postal reorganization, postage rates have increase in line with general inflation, even though taxpayer subsidies were eliminated, so the real cost of mailing letters has declined dramatically. The USPS delivers six days a week to 150 million households and businesses.

Private companies like FedEx and UPS deliver five days a week in most places and serve at most 20 million addresses each day. The USPS is a national treasure that binds the nation together; its unmatchable universal networks provide an essential infrastructure service that is worth preserving. The USPS provides a trusted presence in our neighborhoods that pays off in countless ways, such as the Carrier Alert program, the Cities Readiness Initiative, the national NALC Food Drive and countless acts of everyday heroism by the nation's letter carriers.

The USPS is in trouble because of a Bush-era (2006) law that requires the USPS to massively pre-fund the cost of retiree health benefits over the next 75 years in just 10 years' time. The cost covers not only current employees, but employees who have yet to be hired — and it is on top of the cost for health benefits for current retirees. No other company or agency is required to pre-fund future retirees' health benefits. The cost of $5.5 billion per year to pre-fund began in 2007. If it weren't for these payments the USPS would have been profitable.

So, what can solve this problem? We need our congressmen to co-sponsor H.R. 1351. Only Congress can allow the USPS take money out that it has put into an account to pre-fund future retiree health care. Two private audit companies using slightly different numbers found there is somewhere between $50 billion and $75 billion in the account (if someone hasn't borrowed from it). Proposed bill H.R. 1351 would allow the USPS to get some of its money to make it though this critical time, until we fix this pre-funding issue.

We have 206 co-sponsors from both parties for the bill. West Michigan's congressman, Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland, is not one of these co-sponsors. Please let him know he should be!

Joe Czarny

Whitehall