“It feels like Helena and Cosby are caught in the cross hairs. There is a big battle going on and we are the ones that are going to suffer.”-Marianne Price, Montana resident who relies on the U.S. Postal Service

Recently, the President of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Fred Rolando, said certain actions by Congress, or lack of action, could put the USPS into a “…death spiral…”.

A CNN Money report says political analysts have reason to believe the U.S. Congress will not consider any more bills to save the U.S. Postal Service, until after the 2012 elections.  That guarantees the USPS will default.

The U.S. Postal Service, which does not use taxpayer money to operate, employes 557,000 people directly.  Several companies, like FedEx, also provide service under contract.  South eastern Idaho postal workers told me that if the USPS defaults, at least 200,000 postal workers will immediately lose their jobs!  It will also mean cut backs for those contractors working for the Postal Service.

The USPS is actually a contractor itself.  Under President Richard Nixon today’s Postal Service was created (it was the Postal Department before then).  The Postal Service operates on money that comes from you and me buying postal products (not taxes).  Under President Ronald Reagan stamps were added to the list of products the Postal Service could make money from (before that the government got the money from stamp sales).  The only tax money used for postal services are for mail for the blind, for mail in election ballots sent from U.S. citizens living overseas, and, for providing address information to state and local child support enforcement agencies.

For reasons not publicly known, some elected officials, and the main stream media, are misleading the public into thinking that cuts to the USPS would save taxpayer money. It won’t!

A Cornell University professor says the U.S. Congress is fully to blame (as I’ve stated in past postings): “A lot of these decisions are fundamental business decisions about quality and frequency of service, and they should be in the hands of the executives running the Postal Service. But Congress won’t let them do that!”-Richard Geddes, Cornell University associate professor

While many officials blame the Postal Service management and the unions, the fact is that USPS management and unions have been working together to make drastic cuts. Their latest agreement could cut $20 billion in postal worker health care benefits, but Congress has to sign off on it.

Just a couple of weeks ago, President Barack Obama extended the deadline for default by the U.S. Postal Service.  The new deadline is December 16.  If the CNN Money sources are right, then bye bye USPS (unless Obama just keeps extending the deadline)!