Congress had a hand in the Postal Service's struggles

Kudos for your factual “A flexible Postal Service would better serve public” (March 5) editorial. A quasi-independent agency, the United States Postal Service is hamstrung by congressional regulations.

No federal funds have been received since 1983. Since 2006, it’s been forced to pay $5.5 billion per year to prefund future retiree health benefits through 2016. No other federal agency does this that far ahead. In 2010, USPS paid over $75 billion to the Civil Service Retirement System due to a miscalculation. Congress won’t give it back nor apply it toward USPS expenses. That, not the economy, is why it lost $3.8 billion this year.

The government uses USPS as a cash cow, like Social Security. Now with mail decreases from the down economy, some in media and Congress act like USPS is to blame. Congress over-regulated USPS, prevented them from making a profit, changing rates as needed and closing unprofitable offices with a minimum of bureaucracy.