It Now Costs More To Mail A Letter

By Alan with comments January 27, 2013 09:50

Postal rates went up Sunday.

Losing $25 million a day, the U.S. Postal Service will increase the price of a first-class stamp to 46 cents Sunday, the sixth hike in eight years.

The mail system suffered a record $15.9 billion loss in 2012, including an $11.1 billion default on payments to the U.S. Treasury.

“We are on an unsustainable financial path,” Postmaster-General Patrick Donahoe told Congress earlier this month.

“The Postal Service shouldn’t have to do business this way.”

It has already cut its budget by $15 billion in recent years while shedding 168,000 jobs, or nearly a quarter of its workforce.

But officials need to save another $6.5 billion a year to reach their goal of becoming profitable by 2015.

The reason the Post Office can’t meet its obligations is because Congress requires it to play 100% of its pensions in advance. Stopping that practice, and having the Post Office conform to every public or private business pension practice, is what could save them.