Issue Position: The Republican Threat to Your Community Post Office

Issue Position

YOUR Small-town Post Office is in Jeopardy The Postal Service is NOT broke. The reason you think it is is because the Republican Party and all of its right-wing allies say so. Why? Follow the money! A huge donor to the Republican Party is none other than FedEx. In 2006, George Bush and Congressional Republicans enacted the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, the purpose of which was to ultimately destroy the Postal Service. It provides that the Postal Service must fund, in advance, all of its projected pension liabilities that it might have during the next 75 years (including employees who have yet to be born!) and that these funds must be paid into a U.S. government fund by 2016. This preposterous requirement costs the Postal Service $5.5 billion a year. And despite that, the Postal Service made a profit $700 million over the past 4 years. It has never run a deficit, and since 1971 has paid $80 billion in profit into the treasury. The Post Office is provided for in the Constitution. It's a vitally important service that doesn't have to make a profit. To serve their corporate masters, though, the Republicans are busily trying to destroy it. They can be counted on to keep on trying as long as FedEx keeps writing checks, and as long as there are Republicans in Congress. Any announcement to close community Post Offices needs to be strenuously resisted.

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