E-mail:

Liveblogged from WSJ – “Fifth question “from a Republican so I don’t know what I’m doing here.” Question on a universal health care plan, and that if you create a public option, whether it will lead to an entirely government run system. Obama says there’s a difference between a “universal” plan and a “single-payer” plan. Obama says the private industry can compete against the government. “They do it all the time,” he says. “If you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.”
This is classic. 1. the post office has a monopoly on first class mail. there is NO competition. 2. they lose gobs and gobs of money and are only kept around because they have a big union and a government balance sheet (our grandkids) to offset those mega-losses. 3. they are able to compete against Fedex and UPS because they can afford to operate at mega-losses.

UPDATE:

Another e-mail:

Your most recent Corner post on Obama’s colossally stupid comment about FedEx and UPS doing well against the USPS included the following:
“This is classic. 1. the post office has a monopoly on first class mail. there is NO competition. 2. they lose gobs and gobs of money and are only kept around because they have a big union and a government balance sheet (our grandkids) to offset those mega-losses. 3. they are able to compete against FedEx and UPS because they can afford to operate at mega-losses.”
As far as point 1 and 3, this is very accurate. I used to work for UPS in the Competitive Analysis function and we studied the USPS. We spent a great deal of time determining if the USPS used that First Class Mail monopoly in order to improperly subsidize their small package business which competes directly against UPS and FedEx. We constantly had to push back in Congressional and Postal Regulatory Commission testimony to more accurately allocate their costs to show the true nature of their operating costs.
Point 2 is interesting in that UPS also is highly unionized (FedEx is not unionized). Historically, UPS also has the highest profit margins in the transportation industry and is highly profitable. In the most recent quarter, the USPS lost $2.4 billion from operations (source) while UPS earned $0.9 billion from operations (source).
I cannot think of a better way to prove the argument against nationalized healthcare than to trot out the USPS vs. FedEx and UPS. Two of the companies are consistently rated among the most admired companies in the world compared to an organization that is a punch line to workplace killing sprees…

And another e-mail:

Rich, you posted some claims about the USPS which are simply false. The post office made money every year from 2003 to 2006 and generally comes within a few billion each year of breaking even on revenues of around $70 billion. So the following is wrong, and really ought to be corrected:
“they lose gobs and gobs of money and are only kept around because they have a big union and a government balance sheet (our grandkids) to offset those mega-losses. 3. they are able to compete against Fedex and UPS because they can afford to operate at mega-losses. “
Here are the post office’s annual financial reports:
Unsurprisingly, the post office lost money in ‘07 and ‘08 just as many private corporations did. It’s just about broken even overall since 2003, though. Here are the numbers:
Year Operating Revenues Net Income
2003 $68.5 bln $3.9 bln
2004 $68.9 bln $3.1 bln
2005 $69.9 bln $1.4 bln
2006 $72.5 bln $0.9 bln
2007 $74.8 bln – $5.1 bln
2008 $74.9 bln – $2.8 bln
As the following GAO report indicates, the post office may have to do some minor tweaking in the future to remain true to the “the fundamental principle that USPS remain financially self-supporting”, but that is indeed the principle under which it operates and under which it has operated for some time.

One more:

Rich:
I do not entirely agree with your e-mailer. At least part of the P.O.’s problem is that it must deliver every piece of mail at an average price whether it is profitable or not. UPS and FedEx can choose to whom they deliver and the prices they charge for delivery. The “Public” option will suffer the same fate because everyone must be insured. This, to me, is the proper analogy; one that Obama didn’t make because it hurts his case.