US Postal Service fears running out of cash by 2024 amid a ‘death spiral’
(Worthy News) – The U.S. Postal Service, contending with dwindling revenue even as it delivers mail to 1 million new addresses every year, will run out of cash in the next five years unless Congress eliminates flaws that lawmakers built into its business model, the postmaster general warned Tuesday.
Chief among the obstacles is a requirement imposed in 2006 that the organization pay in advance for retiree health benefits, rather than covering them as they come due, the practice of most government agencies and private companies.
That alone costs the service $7.1 billion a year and has contributed to 11 years of losses, including one of $3.9 billion in 2018. The organization has stayed afloat largely by defaulting on $48 billion in mandated payments over the past several years, Megan Brennan said during a hearing called by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and its operations are further complicated by inflation-linked caps on price increases for key products. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]