Postal Service Inches Closer to Bankruptcy

In 1775, the Continental Congress established the post office naming beloved Founding Father Benjamin Franklin as the first Postmaster. Now, over two centuries later the U.S. Postal Service is facing financial collapse.

It’s hard to imagine what the U.S. without a postal service, but that could be inevitable as the agency inches closer to bankruptcy. On Thursday, the agency reported that they are losing $57 million per day.

They recently defaulted on a Treasury Department payment, and say they will miss another $5 billion payment due in September 30^th.

The Post Office is being slowly strangled by payments they must make into future retiree benefit plans, a problem that plagues municipalities and private businesses. In 2006, Congress mandated that they must pay billions into the fund each year.

But they have been losing revenue amid a decline in first-class postage. Between April and June the postal service reported a $5.2 billion loss.

The Postal Service has been urging Congress to act and allow them to cut costs, by eliminating Saturday deliveries and eliminate their annual benefit payments by $5 billion. Congress has not, however, acted and the Postal Service says it is likely they will miss benefit payments in the future.

In a struggling economy, it’s no surprise that individuals and businesses are becoming financially insolvent. Bankruptcy is an effective way to get debt relief and become sound again. With the help of a bankruptcy attorney, a debtor can get the information they need to determine if bankruptcy is the course of action they should take.