Congress should have stepped in to solve the problems with the United States Postal Service long ago, but they didn’t. So now consumers are faced with a significant decrease in service that will occur beginning this March ”“ only a few months away.

The postal service is waiting for Congress to grant it authority to reduce delivery to five days a week, raise stamp prices and reduce health care and other labor costs. But they can’t wait any longer: The USPS faces imminent default this month on a $5.5 billion annual payment to the treasury for retiree health benefits, according to the Associated Press.

Previous AP reports have shown that the USPS would not be in debt were it not for its federal obligation to pre-pay health benefits for retirees. So while it’s easy to say that the service is suffering from the American public’s growing use of the Internet for its bills and personal correspondence, it’s actually this pension system that is crippling it.

So in the meantime, while postal service officials wait for Congress to fix it ”“ because such a change is not under postal service control ”“ they’re planning to make $3 billion worth of reductions. Those will include the closure of 3,700 post offices and nearly half its 500 mail-processing centers, and expanding delivery time for first-class mail up to three days. Periodicals will take up to nine days to reach their destination once the cuts are in place ”“ effectively making many news magazines irrelevant.

These cuts represent a huge step backwards for the USPS, which has had next-day mail available since 1971.

The worst part of this situation is that it could have been fixed without impacting the entire nation of mail users.

Postal Service Inspector General David Williams, in a January 2010 report ”“ nearly two years ago ”“ noted that the postal service believed it had been overcharged for its pension obligations, to the tune of $75 billion. That money, if returned, could have created a surplus to be dumped into a health-benefits fund, Williams found, so had Congress acted then, we wouldn’t be in this predicament now.

He also argued for the USPS to be an independent entity, without the quasi-governmental identity it currently holds, so it could operate more like a business. According to the U.S. government website, the USPS operated as a tax-supported agency of the federal government until 1970, when it became a semi-independent federal agency that is supposed to be self-supporting.

Since 1982, the USPS has declined a public service subsidy from the government, with the cost of operating the postal system instead paid for mostly by customers through the sale of postal products and services, according to the website usa.gov.

It is clear that some changes to the USPS’ status should be made ”“ after all, if the postal service was not hamstrung by needing Congressional approval for certain actions, its officials could have resolved this matter years ago.

Instead, several entities, including print news outlets, will soon be negatively impacted by the move away from next-day mail delivery, possibly resulting in job losses, and 100,000 jobs will be cut in the USPS alone.

The proposed changes will negatively impact many businesses that depend on quick mail delivery. Take Netflix, for example, which charges by the month to send DVDs by mail: The slower the mail, the less bang customers will get for their buck, which will hurt the business.

People also depend on the mail to get their bills and birthday cards out on time and to get their mail-order prescription drugs and news magazines delivered.

For those who have grown accustomed to their mail reaching its destination in one or two days, there will be some unpleasant surprises once the cuts go into effect if they don’t plan ahead.

It’s high time for Congress to step up and take on the USPS pension system and approve the rest of the changes needed to keep the service solvent, before it implodes. Regular mail delivery is a point of pride for this nation, a symbol of our progress, and its efficiency should not be allowed to regress.

Yes, the Internet is eroding the postal service to some extent, but not everyone has access to the Internet and not all mail deliveries can be replaced with online services. Making the postal service less efficient, less convenient and more expensive will only push more people toward Internet usage, shutting out those who do not have access.

There is no substitute for having a physical item delivered to and from your own home ”“ it’s an amazing system, and it’s one we should support. We urge our Congressional representatives to step up and address pension reform so the postal service doesn’t have to take giant steps backwards. The government should not help the service dig its own grave.

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Today’s editorial was written by Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Kristen by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.