Don’t gut Postal Service

Postmaster General Patrick Donahue wants to destroy the United States Postal Service. He claims a “loophole” in the congressional mandate requiring six-day delivery. His suspension of Saturday delivery would have a significant negative effect on the Postal Service and millions of customers.

This is just another misguided decision by the postmaster general, reflecting his policies of slash-and-shrink. This approach to the financial problems will doom the USPS to failure. He must continue working with Congress in removing the $5.5 billion in prepayment of retirement benefits that was enacted in 2006. Without this annual prepayment, the USPS shows a cost reduction from the previous fiscal year.

Donahue claims that 70 percent of Americans approve of this reduction. I believe that the remaining 30 percent fall within one of these categories: small business, people in rural communities, the disabled or elderly, and others who depend on Saturday delivery for commerce and communication.

Naturally, Donahue will not talk about reducing his salary, a mere $271,000 in 2011, not to mention bonuses and incentives he receives annually.

It is clear the Postal Service leadership’s only strategy is to gut the unique postal network that provides us with the world’s most affordable delivery service, and to eliminate these services on which Americans depend.

Allen Wall

Garfield, Wash.