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Mark Behnen - Financial troubles of th…

Mark Behnen
August 16, 2020 at 11:43 PM ·

Financial troubles of the post office.

EDIT: I wanted to include something about the mailboxes
being removed. This is a practice that has been
occurring since 2009. When mail volume falls below a
certain amount, the boxes are removed and reassigned.
However, as of August 14, 2020, from the Washington
Post:
“After the removal of dozens of mailboxes in several
states set off a social media panic and high-profile
blowback this week, the U.S. Postal Service has
suspended all such operations nationwide.
‘We are not going to be removing any boxes,’USPS
spokesman Rod Spurgeon told NBC News on Friday.
‘After the election, we’re going to take a look at
operations and see what we need and don’t need.’” (End
of edit)
I’ve seen a lot of “informed” people suddenly caring
about the Post Office’s financial troubles; I suppose it’s
only coincidence that it’s suddenly an issue when the
blame for the trouble can be placed on Donald Trump.
It’s amazing, he hasn’t even been president for four
years, and yet everything before him, everything now,
and certainly everything after his presidency is over will
be blamed on him; and anything positive is to the holier-
than-thou-do-no-wrong Democrat messiah Obama.
So I’ve decided to address the issues with my knowledge
based off of personal experience (I’ve known about the
Postal Accountability and Enhancement act since it was
passed in 2006. I also have a more than familiar
knowledge of most things related to the USPS
considering what my dad did for work until he retired)and
knowing that wont be good enough for many of you, I
can ensure you everything I will present is based on facts
that can be verified. That is to say everything in this post
is verifiable fact, so I don’t care if you agree or not: facts
don’t care about your feelings.
The Postal Service doesn’t receive any money from
taxpayers and hasn’t since 1982. That makes the Postal
Service the only company that is required to generate its
own revenue while being subjected to the whim’s of the
US Congress. If the Postal Service generates too much in
profit in a year, people complain that the rates are too
high and congress forces the rates to drop. If the deficit
is too large for that year, congress complains and the
postal service raises rates, eliminates certain services,
etc. This of course results in complaints for the
consumers, so the USPS Is continually trying to find a
middle ground that allows them to afford their operations
while being affordable to the consumer. The postal
service operates based off of Stamp Sales, other
services like PO Box’s, their “Last Mile” delivery
partnerships, etc.
It’s an oversimplification to say the Postal Accountability
and Enhancement act was “passed by the Republicans”
or a “Republican Congress” like many are claiming. First,
who is responsible is wildly insignificant at this point.
Secondly, it was a bipartisan bill. It was introduced by a
Republican and cosponsored by one Republican and Two
Democrats. It was then approved without objection. That
would make this a bipartisan bill.
The Postal Accountability and Enhancement act of 2006
was NOT a requirement to fund the USPS pensions for
the next 75 years. The bill required the prefunding of
Health Benefits for “at least 50 years” with payments of
approximately 5.6billion per year over the next 10 years
scheduled to end in 2016. The USPS is the only company
required by the government to do this.
While this has contributed to the USPS losing money
yearly, it is not the only or primary cause. First, the Postal
Service defaulted on their payments beginning in June of
2011, because their deficit had reached 8billion dollars,
while the Retiree Health Benefits fund had a surplus of
almost 6billion dollars. One thing I am unclear on is if the
Postal Service ever resumed these payments, as they
defaulted again in 2012.
Unlike what President Trump claims, the postal service is
not losing money because of the deal it made with
Amazon. The postal serice not able to offer any delivery
services below cost so at a bare minimum it is breaking
even with its amazon deliveries. The PAEA made it a
requirement that the USPS is not allowed to offer any
new services services to help it become more modern
and relevant and generate more revenue.
The loss of revenue for the postal service is a
combination of things. The PAEA contributed, but the
USPS has been losing money due to: loss in mailings due
to the email and internet, the Great Recession, mail
volume, and now more recently COVID-19.
From COVID-19 alone, the USPS third quarter (April 1,
2020 to June 30, 2020) has seen a decline in revenue
from Marketing Mail by $1.4billion, which is a decline of
37.2%. This is a volume decline of 6.4billion pieces of
mail, equaling 36.4%. First class mail declined by $373
million, or 6.4%, with 1.1billion fewer pieces of mail,
equaling 8.4%. Packages due to higher e-commerce
shopping increased revenue by $2.9billion, or 53.6% with
an increased number of pieces by 708million, equaling
49.9%.
However, the package volume increases drove
substantial increases in work-hour and operating
expenses. So in addition to the cost of labor with
associated with the increase in packages, the amount
spent on transportation expenses increased substantially
because there were fewer methods of transportation
available. The lack of flights was the most significant
contributor to this. The USPS also had an increase in
spending on supplies due to the need to purchase PPE.
The Families First Coronavirus Response act which
increased the ability of workers in the USA to take paid
sick leave and supposed to be reimbursed by the federal
government is a contributing factor, as USPS workers are
qualified to use the act to take sick leave, but the USPS
does not qualify for reimbursement from the Federal
Government.
The trend of the USPS losing money is not a new issue,
and President Trump is not the only president to see the
need to take cost cutting measures in order to ensure the
sustainability of the USPS. In Obamas first term as
president, he ensured the USPS cut costs by more than
$12 billion and reduced the postal career workforce by
110,000 in spite of the “no layoffs clause”.
Currently, the only reason the spotlight is on the USPS
and the reductions in the mail service is because of this
sudden, and unscientific, fear of voting in person.
Pandemic or not, Republican or Democrat president or
not, the idea of preparing the entire country to handle
massive mail-in voting in 3 months time is not logically
possible. Even in states where mail-in voting system have
long been in place, there are still issues that arise.
An experiment was done in Philadelphia to represent a
mock mail-in election. The first batch of ballots resulted
in 3% of the votes being lost. The second batch of
ballots resulted in 21% of the votes being lost. In New
York’s primary, the votes are still being counted, and the
possibility of 100,000 votes being thrown out is very real.
This is due to anything from people forgetting to sign
their ballots, ballots arriving late after being sent back,
ballots never being received, or ballots not being
postmarked. Postmarks typically only go on mail with
stamps, to invalidate the stamp so it cant be reused.
Election mail is prepaid and prepaid mail doesn’t require
a postmark. However, election mail *should* get a
postmark, but there are times where employees or mail
sorting machines miss postmarking ballots. Sometimes
for an entire day.
In March’s presidential Primary in California, 102,428
mail-in ballots were disqualified in the state’s 58
counties, about 1.5% of the nearly 7 million mail-in
ballots returned. During the 2016 presidential election,
1% of the votes returned were disqualified.
In a functioning republic, where our right to vote is one of
the most important rights to our freedom, ANY
disenfranchised voter is one too many, especially in a
closely contested election as this presidential one is
possibly going to be.
Lastly, the science isn’t there to back up voting in person
is dangerous. The media has misrepresented the
outcome of the Wisconsin election in April, claiming
there was a surge of outbreaks as a result. This has
widely been disproven. Even Politifact, ABC news,
associated press, etc have also disproven this assertion.
Even Dr. Fauci has recently said that it’s safe to vote in
person, as long as proper protocol are followed.
Hopefully this helps clear up some of the lies, fear
mongering, and confusion that are being spread around
by the internet and Media.
TL;DR: Donald Trump isn’t maliciously sabotaging the
USPS to disenfranchise voters, the postal service has
been losing money and facing cost cutting measures for
years: the current Postmaster General just has the balls
to do what needs to be done. Voting by mail isn’t set up
to be functional for the entire country, and logically cant
be setup before the election. Voting in person is safe,
and this is backed by science.

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Peter Helfrich and 16 others

11 Shares

Kjersti Arnold
Thanks for sharing Mark! Love all your
posts! Hope you’re doing well! 2

2 yrs Like Reply More

Kjersti Arnold replied · 1 reply

Tim Hamilton
My Mom worked for USPS for 32 years until
she retired this year. Everything you have
said is 100% correct. The design of the
company with congressional oversight has
been a massive hindrance as well as poor
management over at least the last 20 years.
Also don't forget the introduction of cluster
mail boxes. During a route when counted
the boxes count has half or even lower
percentage meaning more work for drivers
and less pay charged for "junk" mail
advertising. The loss of both Amazon and
FedEx contracts was at most 5% income for
USPS. The postal service honestly works
the same now as it did years ago. You can't
compare it to the business model of
Amazon, UPS, or others. Amazon use
contractors like Uber saving them millions. I
don't fully understand how UPS makes a
crap ton of money while paying their drivers
40 dollars an hour. Must be their sorting
centers or rates they charge to whole
sellers. FedEx is in constant Flux. DHL owns
the rest of the world market.

It's a crazy world we live in where issues

that have always existed suddenly become
relevant only when convenient. 5

2 yrs Like Reply More

Katy Doetsch
Funny timing! you posted this as my
husband and I were discussing the postal
service! 1

2 yrs Like Reply More

Cindy Denker Collins

Thanks for the info in your post, Mark
Behnen! 1

2 yrs Like Reply More

Cathy Flores
My husband also worked for post office
until he retired. You did a lot of research to
provide this information. Thanks Mark. 2

2 yrs Like Reply More

Kathy Behnen
Very informative and well researched. 2

2 yrs Like Reply More

Johanna Sanchez Gentile

Thank you, Mark. Lots of good information.
2 yrs Like Reply More

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