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45 IRET Congressional Advisory 1 (1995)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/iretcgadv0043 and id is 1 raw text is: IRET
June 14, 1995 No. 4
A FIRST STEP IN GOVERNMENT
DOWNSIZING: GET THE U. S.
POSTAL SERVICE OUT OF THE
PACKAGE DELIVERY BUSINESS
As they attempt to carry out the promises they
made to voters last November, the new majorities in
both Houses of Congress are
grappling with how to slow
significantly the growth of    The U.S. Posh
government spending. One of   delher busing
the   keys  to   successful    uniquely  wa
downsizing will be recognizing  subsidized ac
that in large part the federal  merely as a .
government has grown     so
rapidly because it has tried to  gonmentac
do too much.    Many tasks    economicj
u n d e r t a k e n  b y  the  provided.
government - which   really
means tasks foisted upon the
taxpayers who must pay the bills   should be
scaled back or abandoned: the programs are too
costly, create perverse incentives, invade personal
liberties, or all of the above.
After a generation and a half in which the
government's reach has expanded in virtually all
areas except national defense, reversing direction
will not be easy. To rein in the size of government,
federal programs need to be subjected to a series of
fair but firm tests. Some of the tests are: Does the
program  carry  out a legitimate function  of
government? Do the program's benefits outweigh

the program's costs? Could the private sector do
the same job better?
With regard to the last point, an effective
strategy for limiting the size of government is to
rethink all government programs for which there are
well developed private-sector alternatives. In most
such cases the government program should be
reduced or eliminated because the private sector can
do the job better.
To illustrate this test by way of an example,
why should the U.S. Postal Service, a quasi-
governmental organization, be in the business of
delivering packages? By no stretch of anyone's
imagination can package delivery be seen as a
legitimate function of government. Not only is the
Postal Service encroaching on private business, it is
heavily subsidized in doing so. It is exempt from

most taxes. It can

1 Service's package
ess is certainly not a
eful goverinment-
rivity.  It is cited
lagrant example of
tities for which no
!tfication  can  be

borrow directly from the U.S.
Treasury,   which   vastly
improves its credit rating,
enabling it to obtain funds
from private lenders at very
low interest rates. Many of
the governmental regulatory
agencies that inspect- and
burden - private  businesses
do not have jurisdiction over
the U.S. Postal Service. And
if worst comes to worst, it is
widely  expected  that the
federal government would bail

out the U.S. Postal Service rather than allowing it to
go under.
There is no good reason for bestowing these
federal supports and guarantees on the delivery of
packages.   None of the arguments that are
sometimes made on behalf of one or another
government activity applies to the U.S. Postal
Service's package delivery.
It might be argued that a government-supported
agency is needed to deliver packages if private
companies were unable or unwilling to do so.

Institute for
Research on the
Economics of
Taxation

IRET is a non-profit, tax exempt 501(c)(3) economic policy research and educational organization devoted to inorming the
public about policies that will promote economic growth and efficient operation of the free market economy.
1730 K Street, N., Suite 910, Washington, D.C. 20006
Voice 202-463-1400 * Fax 202-463-6199 0 Internet www.iret.org

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