USPS expected to default on payment, could be broke by next year

» They could be broke by September 2012: On top of that, they expect to default on a key health care pension plan payment (which forces them to pre-pay for workers’ future health benefits decades in advance) — of $5.5 billion.

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illusion The U.S. postal service has had to pre-pay large amounts of their health care costs for a number of years — roughly $5.5 billion this year, which they nearly defaulted on and only survived thanks to U.S. government help.
reality In reality, they’re pre-paying health benefits over the next 75 years — a point which likely includes many employees yet to be hired or born — as a way to make the federal deficit look a little less depressing. Wait a second … source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

$20
billion the amount of money the struggling U.S. Postal Service has lost in the past four years — including $8.5 billion last year alone
120,000 workers number of employees the struggling postal service has proposed cutting to stave off their financial issues; did your e-mails do them in? source

» No more federal health care? If you’ve been following the U.S. Postal Service’s financial situation closely, you might know that part of the reason they’ve been struggling involves high pre-paid health care costs, an issue that cropped up due to a federal law forcing them to set aside a large amount of money for health care. This means that they can’t use any of the money to, you know, do anything else. Now the USPS says they’d be better off getting off the federal plan and doing private health care and pensions instead. They say it’s cheaper. Was that whole thing a ploy to get them further off the federal dime? They’re independent, you know.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Nov 2011 19:54