House Republicans are trying to bankrupt the post office — so they can privatize it.Tell Congress: Stand up for postal workers and the public. Hands off our Postal Service!

House Republicans are jumping at the chance to put the U.S. Postal Service — one of America’s most widely-used and well-trusted civic institutions¹ — on the chopping block, and to throw a half million largely Black and female unionized workers out of a job.^2,3

It’s a scandal. By most mainstream news accounts, the USPS is broke and beyond repair. The media is now parroting what used to be far-right talking points about actually selling off, or privatizing, the postal system outright.⁴

Except the post office isn’t broke — and hasn’t taken a dime of taxpayer money since 1971.⁵ Congress created the USPS’s financial crisis, and they could end it today. A Bush-era requirement that the Postal Service pre-fund its retiree benefits 75 years into the future — a burden imposed on no other government agency or private employer — has been digging the otherwise profitable Postal Service deeper and deeper into the red.^6,7 Instead of working to fix the problem, Republicans in the House are taking advantage of the post office’s financial vulnerability to try to shut it down.

Please join us in urging Congress to enact postal reform that drops the USPS’s unfair 75-year pre-funding burden and keeps the post office in service to the public.

Due to its exceptional efficiency,⁸ the Postal Service has managed to turn a profit on postal sales in the worst economy since the Great Depression. But the massive pre-funding payments required by Congress have added up, and the USPS’s financial situation is now so dire that the Postmaster General is threatening to cut Saturday mail delivery.⁹ Such a move would immediately slash 18% of the postal workforce¹⁰ and create delays for Veterans’ and Social Security checks, putting people who are already struggling to make it to the end of the month at even greater risk.¹¹

Because of its obligation and responsibility to provide affordable, universal service, only the USPS can be counted on to reach every home in America, rain or shine. After Superstorm Sandy, which severed public transportation links and shuttered retail for weeks in the worst-hit areas, the Postal Service was all many had to rely on for access to life-saving medicines.¹² Live in an urban neighborhood “too dangerous” for UPS and FedEx, or down a remote rural lane? Without the USPS you’d receive no service at all.¹³

The public sector is under relentless right-wing attack¹⁴ — and Black working women are bearing the brunt. Nationwide, 40% of postal workers are women and 20% are Black, although in cities like Chicago, Black letter carriers can comprise upwards of 75% of the local USPS workforce.¹⁵ When the country is still experiencing nearly 8% unemployment — and Black unemployment has climbed back up to 14%¹⁶ — any deliberate effort to put even more of us out of work is indefensible.

The Postal Service must continue to work for all of us. Please join us in urging Congress to stop bankrupting the USPS’s future and adopt real postal reform that respects workers and our communities.

Claims that mail delivery has been made obsolete by the advent of email and online bill payment ring hollow for the 46% of Black Americans without access to high-speed Internet in their homes.¹⁷ And making financial transactions online isn’t an option for the more than 37 million American households — over 60% of whom are Black or Latino — without a bank account or access to formal credit,¹⁸ for whom inexpensive post office money orders meet a vitally important need.

Congress will make a decision on ending Saturday delivery as early as next Friday, setting the stage for a showdown on the larger question of retiree benefits in March. To that end, Congress is now working on competing proposals for postal reform that will result in either further punishing and privatizing the Postal Service, or in removing obstacles to innovation and expanding USPS’s flexibility to meet additional critical needs — including by offering public Internet access, community banking and expanded vote by mail.^19,20,21

Please join us in urging Congress to stand up for postal workers and the public, by adopting postal reform legislation that rejects privatization and puts the post office back on solid financial ground. And when you do, please tell your friends and family to do the same.

Thanks and Peace,

–Rashad, Matt, Arisha, Kim and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team    February 21st, 2013

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU—your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don’t share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way.

References

1. “The Postal Service is struggling, but not because of the mail,” Washington Post, 07-19-12 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2245?t=10&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

2. “Postal Workers: The Last Union,” Truthout, 09-08-11 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2246?t=12&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

3. “USPS’s Largely Black and Female Workforce Rallies to Save Jobs,” Colorlines, 09-28-11 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2255?t=14&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

4. “Post Office Privatization Is Probably a Huge Real Estate Deal,” 08-02-12 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2244?t=16&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

5. “The Post Office is not broke—and it hasn’t taken any of our tax money since 1971,” Hightower Lowdown, 03-01-12 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2259?t=18&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

6. “Congress Can Block Postal Austerity, and Save Saturday Delivery,” The Nation, 02-13-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2248?t=20&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

7. “Mandate pushed Postal Service into the red for first quarter,” Washington Post, 02-08-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2249?t=22&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

8. “Why the Postal Service Is Going Out of Business,” Forbes, 12-06-11 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2258?t=24&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

9. See reference 6.

10. “Dead Letter Blues,” Jacobin, 02-11-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2272?t=26&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

11. “Nader, Bernie Sanders Slam Postal Service for No Sat. Delivery,” The Progressive, 02-06-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2251?t=28&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

12. “Do We Really Want to Live Without the Post Office?” Esquire, 01-22-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2254?t=30&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

13. See reference 2.

14. “The collateral damage of cutting postal service,” Washington Post, 02-12-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2247?t=32&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

15. “U.S. Post Office cuts threaten source of black jobs,” Reuters, 01-21-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2256?t=34&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

16. “Black Unemployment Rate Shoots Up from 12.9% to 14%,” Politic365, 01-04-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2257?t=36&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

17. “Pew Internet: Broadband,” Pew Internet & American Life Project, 05-24-12 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2252?t=38&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

18. “Black, Latino Consumers Severely Under-Banked,” Atlanta Black Star, 12-07-12 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2253?t=40&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

19. “Issa’s Postal Service Reform Bill Includes Hidden Union Busting,” ThinkProgress, 07-14-11 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2260?t=42&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

20. “End of Saturday Mail Delivery Gets Conservative Support,” Roll Call, 02-06-2013 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2261?t=44&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

21. See reference 6.

As required by law, CBO prepares regular reports on its estimate of the number of jobs created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which was enacted in response to significant weakness in the economy.

In total, CBO estimates that ARRA will increase budget deficits by about $830 billion over the 2009–2019 period. By CBO’s estimate, close to half of that impact occurred in fiscal year 2010, and more than 90 percent of ARRA’s budgetary impact was realized by the end of December 2012.