Opinion

Another rate hike won’t fix the Postal Service

An editorial from the Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT, W.Va. — Earlier this year, when Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe announced that the U.S. Postal Service would no longer have home delivery of mail on Saturdays in an effort to save $2 billion per year, we applauded the decision.

We knew it wasn’t an easy decision for the Postal Service to make. And we knew it would be met by skepticism and people voicing fears of “particularly harmful” impacts on rural America.

But we also knew it was a good move, considering the service suffered a loss of nearly $16 billion last year. And we acknowledged that sometimes sacrifices would have to be made. Giving up the home delivery of mail one day each week seemed like a small compromise that could have had positive financial effects.

So we were disappointed when, just a few weeks after announcing the plan, the Postal Service said it would cancel its plans to end Saturday mail delivery due to the new stopgap budget Congress had passed that would prohibit the move.

Our disappointment grew last week when regulators approved a temporary price hike of 3 cents for a first-class stamp, bringing the charge to 49 cents a letter…

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