The problem with Congress and the USPS

[matmar]

The "Founding Fathers" who wrote the US Constitution expressly gave power to Congress "To establish Post Offices and post Roads" - this is found in Article 1 Section 8.

Having been written into one of our founding documents, the Founders deemed the US Post Office a necessary part of the commons that we all pay for as part of a functioning society.

In its infinite wisdom, Congress in 1970 decided that the Founders were wrong about the US Post Office being a part of the commons. In adopting a corporate model and applying that to a government service, they thought that it would be better if the US Post Office supported itself on the sale of postage (instead of tax-dollars) while continuing to confiscate any revenue generated above and beyond what was needed to operate the service to help defray the cost of government.

Even with this slight of hand, the public still believed that the US Postal Service was still being funded by tax dollars (a mis-perception perpetuated by the likes of Republican Darrell Issa when he criticizes calls for relief of the USPS' "obligations" aka payments to Congress - as a "government bailout" and to which the APWU must run ads on television to counter these mis-perceptions)

It is this public mis-perception and Congress' role of oversight of the USPS as per the US Constitution that has them caught between a rock and a hard place.

On the one hand, they want the USPS to operate "like a business" but only if that means not closing any post offices or distribution facilities in THEIR district or adding to the economic misery by laying off large numbers of people in THEIR district for which they might be held accountable for.

Why don't the members of Congress just accept the wisdom of the Founders when they included in the US Constitution and as part of the Federal Government the US Post Office, a government service for the people, paid for FULLY by the people?

It will take an amendment to the US Constitution for the US Postal Service to be completely free of government oversight. Wouldn't it be easier for Congress to just own up to the fact that you can't have it both ways?

You can't apply a corporate model to a government service and expect it to be functional. We don't require the Social Security Administration to turn a profit. We don't require the Defense Department to turn a profit. We don't require FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to turn a profit.

Those are all functions of government just as the US Postal Service should be.
Edited 09-24-2011 06:09 PM

[dkf]

1. So get rid of stamps?

[safeinOhio]

2. Nationalize Fedex and UPS NOW.

It's in the Constitution.

[RC]

3. FedEx and UPS deliver packages. They are private businesses.

The Post office delivers packages AND sells stamps. So in the mind of the conservative, it is a business and should be run as one also. Never mind the Constitutional mandate.

I will be so glad when conservatism is declared a disease and treatment is developed for it.
The world will make much more logical.

[jwirr]

4. Congress caused the problem - Congress can solve the problem.

If they let the USPS go down do they have any reasonable alternatives to delivering mail door to door 5-6 days of the week? I for one do not believe that it is going to be cheaper if it is privatized. Congress sabotaged to USPS in 2004 and we are just seeing it now.

[matmar]

5. actually it was 2006, but you're larger point is correct

[jwirr]

6. Thanks I was not sure when I posted it.

[customerserviceguy]

7. The Constitution also provided for Letters of Marque

which were important to distinguish a pirate from a privateer, even though they were engaged in the same business.

That line of work became obsolete, the Post Office is going down that same path. Not everything the Founding Fathers knew of would survive.