Few institutions touch as many Americans as the U.S.Postal Service, which visits 150 million homes and businesses six days a week, delivering mail and much more - at the industrialized world's best rates.
And yet, misinformation continues to circulate, and risks destroying a national treasure that serves every American and every business.

Misleading claims that the Postal Service is broke, that it loses billions of dollars a year delivering the mail, or that a taxpayer bailout is imminent are spurring proposals to slash services, close thousands of post offices and fire hundreds of thousands of postal employees. These drastic measures would weaken communities, hurt the U.S. economy and eventually destroy our nation's only universal communications/delivery network.
There is a better solution.
We'll provide you here with some facts to consider as you formulate your views. We recognize that this information will shatter the "conventional wisdom" about the Postal Service. Every word below is accurate and can be independently verified by you. Visit SaveAmericasPostalService.org for documentation.
1. The Postal Service hasn't used a dime of taxpayer money in 30 years. All it's revenue is earned from the sale of its products and services.
2. Customer satisfaction and on-time deliveries are at record levels, labor productivity has doubled, and for six years running the American people have named the postal employees the most-trusted federal workers.
3. Over the past four fiscal years, the Postal Service has earned a $611 million net profit delivering the mail, despite the worst recession in 80 years.
4. The $20 billion in postal losses you've heard about doesn't stem from the mail but rather from a 2006 congressional mandate that the Postal Service pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years and do so within a decade - a burden no other public agency or private firm faces. The $21 billion cost since 2007 accounts for 100 percent of the agency's red ink over that period.
5. Congress created this mess, and lawmakers can fix it, without using a dime of taxpayer money. House Bill 1351, with strong bipartisan support, does just that.
6. In addition, the Postal Service has tens of billions in earned revenue sitting in surplus funds that any business would tap during a recession. As a quasi public agency, the USPS needs congressional approval to draw on its own funds.
7. If Congress does its part, the Postal Service will regain financial stability. It can then continue to adapt to an evolving society as it has for 200 years; provide ever-better services to the public; and remain the center of a $1.3 trillion mailing industry supporting 8 million American jobs. The Internet offers opportunities as well as challenges. While more people are paying bills online, they're also ordering more goods online, and the Postal Service's growing "last-mile" delivery of those packages for FedEx and UPS saves the private carriers - and their customers - money, because the universal network delivers at less cost.
8. If a dysfunctional Congress fails to take these commonsense steps, severe service cuts will be forced on all Americans, including small-business owners, the elderly, rural residents and those needing medicines. Hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost, and a universal network that links the country while enhancing public safety and supporting communities will begin a downward spiral.
No decisions have been made, despite efforts to cast these cuts as unavoidable. Congress can oversee the stabilization of the Postal Service, or its destruction.
Now that you have the full story behind the headlines, what wold you like to see happen? Do you want your member of Congress to help resolve these problems, or instead hasten the Postal Service's demise?

Your voice can make a difference. We urge you to be heard.