Despite overwhelming public support for the creation of a public option for delivering mail, congressional Republicans and conservative Democrats have joined the private deliverers to decry the creation of the "United States Postal Service."
For years, those who couldn't afford the high delivery rates for letters and packages by the private delivery industry -- with the American market controlled by a virtual oligopoly of two major international corporations -- would have to make tough choices that others didn't have to make. Do I pay the $20 of delivery charges for my bills this week, or do I use that money to pay for baby formula? Do I spend a few hundred dollars to ship gifts to my relatives, or do I use that money to pay for my child's school supplies? And as delivery costs increase every year, more and more Americans are joining the ranks of the undelivered.