The USPS receives plenty of taxpayer subsidies. The USPS is a government monopoly able to increase postal rates to cover any shortfalls.
The USPS as part of the government has huge unfunded liabilities. The argument about liabilities is just a shell game. The taxpayer is on the hook for unfunded liabilities of the USPS just like the entire federal government. There is no portfolio to support the retirement of postal workers just like there is no portfolio to support the retirement of other government workers. The argument that the government owes the USPS money for retirement funds is completely bogus. The USPS is part of the government although with the ability to raise revenue through postal fees. This retirement argument is a ruse to curtail rational action on postal reform.
All I wanted to do was expose some idiotic union propaganda and have it float around in cyberspace for the next 100 years. Oh well.
Regarding your link to Issa’s statements - I noticed there were actually quite a few relevant facts left out of that article. It happens, but I always wonder why - intentionally? Who knows.
However, I don’t disagree with you that the whole thing is a messed up, slimy shell game, and reform is badly needed, as with ALL things the federal govt is involved in. For my part, I could care less if they shut down or privatize, but I don’t believe either one is going to happen any time soon.
One thing, though, the Postal Service has always been a highly profitable cash cow for Congress, even during not-so-profitable years, and it’s my understanding that any subsidies the USPS has received are for purchasing of multimillion dollar machines, etc., during a non-profitable year, and it’s required to be repaid during a profitable year - shell game, yes I know! Remarkably, the USPS non-profitable years coincide with APWU contract negotiation years.
Regarding a portfolio? I’m not sure what that’s about, but the postal employees who hired on before 1980 or so have paid into private individual accounts, and those funds should have been left alone and not treated like a giant piggy bank. [This is not FERS I’m speaking of here. As far as I can tell, FERS is altogether different and involves employees who hired on under a different package/different retirement after 1980, and a few old-timers who were able to be conned into FERS].
At any rate, regarding the stolen retirement money, I was recently told that the USPS was ordered [by court?] to replace these funds. Again, I don’t believe this includes FERS, but who knows, it’s all one big shell game after all and the lines between Congress and the USPS are blurred.
BTW, I use the services of the post office as little as possible because I don’t like the fact that they do arbitrarily raise rates. But for when I need to use it, I do think a postage stamp is a pretty good deal.