Postal reform a painful but necessary step, says R Street’s Kosar
WASHINGTON (Jan. 21, 2016) – Reforming the U.S. Postal Service will require making some tough cuts, but is a necessary measure to take sooner rather than later, according to written testimony provided today to the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee by R Street Governance Project Director Kevin Kosar.
The service is in danger of going bankrupt and its debt is ever-increasing while its original intended purpose – personal correspondence – has moved almost entirely to other media, Kosar notes. The current system is a medium almost entirely for business marketing, government communication and rural parcel delivery.
“The service’s existential crisis goes deeper than finances,” Kosar writes. “It’s very raison d’etre has disintegrated.”
Kosar says that even if the postal services branched out into new products, the realities of the environment show that nothing will inject much-needed cash into the current system. Only serious reform can stem the tide and permit the agency to adjust its operations to the declining demand for its services, while keeping it focused on its mail-delivery duties.
“No amount of wishful thinking will make mail volume grow and postal revenues soar,” he said. “A government operation that goes bankrupt is unlikely to be bailed out by a public that sees it as a pointless anachronism. “
