The importance of postal service is established in the US Constitution, Section 8, which grants the authority and responsibility, “To establish Post Offices and post Roads.” Funding, for these and the other required functions of government, such as military forces, is established in the opening paragraph of Section 8: “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence (sp) and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”
It seems obvious, the Founders realized that postal service was necessary to the welfare of the United States and that they intended universal taxes to pay for it. Today, the US Postal Service is being trimmed because it cannot compete with private package delivery services and electronic media, meaning it does not generate enough cash to pay its own way. Local Post Offices and regional sorting facilities are being closed, resulting in overall slower delivery times.
The postal service, like the armed services, was not originally intended to pay its own way as a profit making business, because it was understood to be vital to the general welfare of the United States. Somewhere along the way, government decided postal service should be self-supporting, probably under the well-worn guise that those who use the service should pay for it, and the intent of the Constitution was dumped. This, of course, allowed the monies for postal services to be spent on other things. Also, the requirement to establish “post roads” was long ago relegated to local authorities. However, in spite of this pay-as-you-use scheme, Congress retained its right to use the postal service without charge, through the device of signature franking.
Before we abandon the Constitutional responsibility to provide postal service, due to lack of funding, perhaps, we should de-fund the lavish lifestyles our elected and appointed officials enjoy at taxpayer expense; the numerous agencies that seek to control our lives; and foreign aid to our enemies. Not only could we then fund a first class postal service, but also, we would save billions, perhaps trillions, in the process and as the late Senator Everett Dirksen reportedly said, “Pretty soon, you’re talking about real money.”
Jim
www.jim-mac.com
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