Behind The Mic With Joe Mathieu: Stamps Up Again As Congress Preserves Service

BOSTON (CBS) – The price of a stamp went up over the weekend. Just three cents but still enough to make for the biggest increase in over a decade.

And we all know the post office needs the money. It lost about $5 billion last year alone and maxed out its credit.

Yet little has been done to fix the problem. Other than raising the price for a stamp.

Over the last half century postal rates have gone-up 50-percent faster than the rate of inflation in this country. Yet services, in recent history, have essentially stayed the same.

And based on what we're hearing from Washington that won't be changing anytime soon.

Remember when the Postal Service was going to cut most Saturday deliveries?

The idea never got past the proposal. Just like most other attempts at cutting services. They're opposed by any number of interest groups like the unions, the junk mailers, greeting cards makers, and one more group called Congress.

It would need to sign off on any proposal to lower costs, whether they include cutting some deliveries, selling real estate or tweaking the USPS pension plan, which is one of the biggest costs hanging over the agency.

But lawmakers don't want to make any changes - election year or not - that might lose a voter.

That's why they put an item in the new budget that would block any changes to Post Office services.

Follow Joe on Twitter @joemathieuwbz