By Ada Fisher

President Obama, in equating health care reform to the U.S. Postal Service, showed the fallacies of both, especially now that it is quite apparent the postal system is bankrupt. If that is his model for health care, Lord help us, for the Postal Service faces constant demands for increased rates and is rationing its service in the face of greater competition. Much to the chagrin of many conservatives, the reality is that postal integrity can only be regained if that agency is put back where it constitutionally belongs — in the arms of the federal government.
Why should we save the postal system?
The number of Christmas and greeting cards in some respects is down because cards are expensive and any communications over the size of a small envelope cost half a dollar to mail. Despite this, the Postal Service is still a good bargain. It is also part of the government’s constitutional mandate to regulate commerce. Businesses still need to use the mail, for not everyone has a computer, and bills must be paid, even though fewer goods are being shipped this way. Not everyone has the Internet.
In Europe the cost of postage inflates beyond reason, and there is often no telling when your letter will get there. In this country, most mail sent first class will reach its destination within three days. Whether it was wise to let Federal Express and United Parcel Service have offices in some post offices where they are competing head to head at an often higher cost remains a question. In the world of global competition the U.S. Postal Service still rules.
Postal Service reforms undertaken thus far have not had the desired effects. Unionization here has had a somewhat negative effect, though no politicians want to touch this. Some are calling for outsourcing the service, which would be a tragedy and might see a foreign entity underbid American companies for this privilege. Federal Express and UPS are often more expensive than the post office for mailing. Stopping the hemorrhaging from the mail service has seen often puzzling and puny attempts in search of remedies, such as:
• Stopping weekend mail (Saturday) for businesses while continuing it for customers may have the effect of limiting commercial undertakings that create jobs for others. Why not stop it for general customers on Saturdays and keep it on that day only for businesses?
• Post offices are being eliminated. Every one of the 3,145 county seats in this nation should still be allowed to have a post office. This could hopefully maintain their viability as centers of commerce in county seats, especially for small towns, villages and cities under 50,000 people.
Would there be more practicality in 24-hour postal centers in at least every county seat rather than the hodgepodge of offerings of stations, which can be difficult to find in some locales?
Would it be more efficient to stop house-to-house deliveries and go to block boxes, especially given the number of postal workers bitten by dogs? Would this create a likely target for criminals or should there be a central box repository like those offered by mail box companies? Somehow, this seems to defeat the spirit imbued in the postal system’s creation and would deprive small communities of someone looking in on the elderly and community property on a daily basis.
Why not investigate the union scale and make the letter carriers the higher paid positions, fix and freeze for 10 years a universal standard for first-class mail for letters and postcards and charge higher rates for all else? Require that the U.S. Postal Service live within a budget, bear a larger share of its benefits costs and re-examine worker’s compensation throughout the system.
Keep your eye on the mail, for it could be gone too soon if we lose sight of what is in the best interest of our citizens and why mail service is a constitutional mandate.
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Dr. Ada M. Fisher is an N.C. Republican National Committeewoman and former member of the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education.