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Postal Service Must Borrow to Pay Retiree Health Benefits by End of Month
Monday, September 07, 2009

By the end of this month, when its fiscal year ends, the U.S. Postal Service will have lost $7 billion in 2008-2009, and it will need a loan from the U.S. Treasury just to pay for health benefits for retired postal workers. USPS’s cash on hand, which will be $700 million in the red by September 30, will make it impossible to meet a $5.8 billion obligation to cover retiree health benefits unless Congress adopts emergency legislation raising the Postal Service’s ability to borrow more money.

The “good” news contained in the USPS’s July financial statement showed the postal operation lost $865 million that month, compared with the $1.3 billion loss it posted at the end of June.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

USPS Reports Loss Of $865 Million In July 2009 (PostalReporter.com)

USPS Preliminary Financial Information (Unaudited) (U.S. Postal Service) (PDF)

Comments

Bob J - 9/9/2009 7:25:10 AM
The bigger scam is that Senators, Congress, and those in power in DC do not repeat do not pay any postage for political mailings, including the surveys that your represenatives send you nor do they pay postage for shipping things either. Ask each one of them if they are willing to have to pay for the U.S. Postal Service services and then the USPS would be in the black not the red. It's just like anything else that Senate and Congress do it's ok for you and me but not them. Don't dare ask them to give up their golden parachute retirements, or their health care etc.

Brian O - 9/8/2009 6:29:12 AM
Again, we have ignorant comments being made. First of all the U.S. Gov. is usuing the P.O. to bail them out. The P.O. is federal gov. only when they need us to bail them out, there is no tax dollars used to fund the P.O. Secondly, the CSRS employees is not the problem with the P.O. How many people in the real world can retire at 55. Get real, we [CSRS] are the backbone of the P.O. , we care more about SERVICE thaqn the current mgmt.

Scott Glenn - 9/8/2009 6:07:09 AM
Leaving out important facts skews the story beyond the full truth. See http://iret.org/pub/ADVS-258.PDF for the entire story which includes Congress preventing the Postal Service from showing its true colors (which are not red ink).

rural carrier - 9/8/2009 6:02:39 AM
this is a scam the postal service would be in the black if they weren,t haveing to pre fund the heath care fund witch has billons in it. even at the present time even with the lower mail volume they are trying to scam the public with these remarks

Not real - 9/8/2009 4:32:23 AM
"to pay for health benefits for retired postal workers"? Wrong!! For future still yet to be hired postal workers!! Congress is using the PO as a cash cow as they do Social Security $$ to off set the deficit. Please be accurate in your reporting as not to leave false information.

postal - 9/8/2009 2:58:48 AM
"U.S. Postal Service will have lost $7 billion in 2008-2009, and it will need a loan from the U.S. Treasury just to pay for health benefits for retired postal workers" You've got it backwards- the USPS has been required by law to pay the Treasury over $5 billion a year to PRE-fund FUTURE (not current) retiree health benefits, something no other company or agency is required to do. In effect, the USPS has loaned the Treasury over $30 billion since this requirement was enacted. Get your facts straight!

Dollwitchyny - 9/7/2009 5:13:30 PM
This is BS! The PO has billions in this fund! Who's trying to get over on this? If they could access these funds, the PO would be in the black, not the red!!

MARK POTO - 9/7/2009 10:15:11 AM
why doesnt the usps retire all csrs employees wouldnt that help out alot.Thats approx. 50,000 employees.IT is not rocket science if I could figure it out. THANK YOU