It is because my local post office sold $800 less stamps for cash at the window last year than the magic number that would have kept them off the CLOSE FOREVER list that is currently being used to shut down local post offices. On September 12 there was a public meeting held to explain to us how to receive vital post office services once the pending decision to close is finalized. That was a very unfriendly meeting. The poor postal official they brought in from 100 miles away to conduct the meeting barely escaped without being tarred and feathered. One 80 year-old lady made it very clear that everything he told us was a load of BS, except she filled in all the letters in BS. In her case, they had already closed the post office about a block from her house two years ago and added their little town into our post office four miles away. Now they want to send all of us to another little town in a different county over 15 miles from her house and over 20 miles for some other people.
The USPS can borrow up to $15 billion from the US government to keep things going. They have already borrowed $8.5 billion and think they will need more than the available $6.5 billion within the next year. They are campaigning to have Congress raise their borrowing limit. Meanwhile, the agreement with Congress dictates that the Post Office not close down local post offices based on cost of operation versus income.
Here are a few more reasons the USPS is going broke, ie "Eighty percent of the Postal Service's annual budget goes toward employee salaries and benefits."
