Concerning the Post Office

To the Editor:

Mr. Bill Balch, in the 14 August Record, put forth some surprising information about the “Postal Clause” in the Constitution of the United States. Surprisingly false.

The Postal Clause in Article 1, Section 8 is very simple. It says that Congress shall have the power “To establish Post Offices and Post Roads”. That is it, nothing more. All else you hear is fiction.

The Postal Clause does NOT create (nor does it mention) the U.S. Postal Service, or whether the Federal Government or private companies should deliver the mail, or whether mail delivery should be for profit or “not for profit”, or whether post office or post roads should be constructed or owned by the Federal Government. Simply designating an existing road as a Post Road or designating a town to have a post office establishes Post Offices and Post Roads.

Running the Postal Service as a profitable business or having private companies deliver the mail instead of the government are not prohibited by the Postal Clause. At least some of the distance for most postal mail is covered by commercial aircraft or private trucking companies.

The Postal Service designates Contract Post Offices, which are privately run operations, clearly demonstrating the flexibility of the Postal Clause. An example is the Post Office located in Murphy’s Steakhouse in Winchester. There are more than 2700 Contract Post Offices in the USA.

“A Contract Postal Unit (CPU) is a supplier-owned or supplier-leased site operated by the supplier, under contract to the Postal Service to provide postal products and services to the public at U.S. Postal Service prices.”

As government operations, the Postal Service pays no property taxes, no sales taxes and no income taxes. Instead, the Postal Service is a drain. Very vocal propaganda continues claiming that rationalizing the Postal Service, making money, or privatizing mail operations to get the government out of its mess are unconstitutional. Unfortunately, many people believe this specious babble.

Edward Dykes

La Grange