Excuse me if I vent a little.  The U.S. Postal Service reported a loss of $5.1 billion (yes, with a “b”) during fiscal year 2011.  The loss would have been $10.6 billion had Congress not postponed a $5.5 billion retirement fund payment until after the fiscal year closed.  I’m not a CPA but shouldn’t that liability be recorded for fiscal year 2011?  Anyway, this loss comes on top of a loss of $8 billion in fiscal 2010.

According to Postmaster General and CEO Patrick Donahoe, “The Postal Servcie can become profitable again if Congress passes comprehensive legislation to provide us with a more flexible business model so we can respond better to a changing marketplace.  To return to profitability we must reduce our annual costs by $20 billion by the end of 2015.” 

The USPS is supposedly asking Congress to allow it to cut some 120,000 workers, close thousands of post offices and terminate Saturday deliveries.  There is no doubt that mail volumes are dropping as more communication is handled electronically.  The Postal Service saw mail volume decline 1.7% year-over-year and revenue down 5.8%.

I don’t want to add politics to my blog, but I don’t understand why the Postal Service doesn’t have the authority to do what it needs to do to operate as a for-profit business.  Going to Congress for approval, who can’t agree on anything and run by anything but business people, seems ridiculous.  Granted, there must be mail service available to the entire population, but perhaps its time to bring it into the modern era.  i can think of a dozen ways to modernize the business and begin turning a profit.  While I hate to see jobs lost, the USPS cannot operate with its current cost structure.

I don’t really understand the Occupy Wall Street movement.  There doesn’t seem to be any common theme and demand.  How about they shift their focus to Occupy Congress and focus for the time being on having Congress give authority to the Postal Service to become profitable and service the country.  Give the USPS the authority it needs to operate as a business.  If we had a movement like that, it would make real sense.  I’m afraid the USPS is going to be subject to political grand-standing and the typical partisan politics that are dividing the country and getting us no where fast.