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US can deliver on health care
Published November 27, 2009
THE FRONT PORCH — He’s not here yet. Must be a busy day what with all the Christmas catalogs, but he will be here. Neither rain nor snow nor rabid dogs nor snide jokes will keep my letter carrier from delivering angry demands from creditors. This brings up a sore point with me. How often have we heard late-night comics or irate Congressmen screaming, “If you like the way your government is delivering your mail, then you’ll love government-run health care.” Bad comparison. The only federal employee and agency I deal with on a regular basis is the U.S. Postal Service, and my postman does a great job.
So as we open holiday catalogs and Christmas cards delivered by — one guess — let’s consider these facts: the USPS delivers more mail to more people than anybody anywhere — almost half (46 percent) of the world’s total. That’s 203 billion pieces last year, 667 million a day, 28 million an hour, 463 each minute. During the holiday season, that total goes up to 692 million pieces, but despite that spike, e-mail and the slow economy (fewer catalogs) have reduced mail by 8.6 percent this year.
The Postal Service has 656,000 career employees and, with 221,000 vehicles, is the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world. For every penny increase in the average price of gasoline, the USPS spends an additional $8 million for fuel. No, the taxpayers do not subsidize the USPS, and our first class mail doesn’t underwrite junk mail. By law, every class of mail must pay for itself. The Postal Service has not received any tax dollars since 1983.
The Postal Service’s current annual budget is $75 billion, but still reported a net loss of $3.8 billion for the 2009 fiscal year despite a reduction of 40,000 employees and cutbacks. Currently, the USPS is seeking permission from Congress to reduce mail delivery to five days a week and close some post offices. FedEx and UPS cut into USPS’s business, but they can cherry-pick the most profitable routes and ignore the rest. The USPS is obligated to serve all Americans everywhere.
This means our letter carriers deliver mail in North Slope Borough, Alaska, (average winter temp minus 22 degrees) and Death Valley, Calif. (average summer temp 115 degrees). The Corrales, N.M., post office was built using 875 bales of straw. It has a hitching post for customers on horseback. The Peach Springs, Ariz., post office is equipped with walk-in freezers for food headed to the bottom of the Grand Canyon by mule train to the Havasupai Indians.
For the fourth straight year, the Postal Service has been rated by the American public as the most trusted government agency. So the next time you hear your idiot Congressman say, “If you like the way your government is delivering your mail blah, blah, blah.” You might reply, “If our government can deliver heath care as efficiently as it delivers the mail, we’ll be in good shape.”
Lynn Ashby is a Houston-based columnist. Contact him at ashby2(at)comcast.net.
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