Hidden Cost of Postal Cutbacks: $5 Billion

Unions and some lawmakers say the U.S. Postal Service's plans to close plants and post offices would turn customers away and hasten the service's downward spiral. Now their campaign has been buoyed by revelations of a survey that the Postal Service commissioned —and then dismissed and pushed to make secret.

The survey, budgeted to cost up to $435,000, shows closures and cutbacks would cost $5.2 billion in lost business and result in a 7.7% drop in mail volume.

The Postal Service says the survey—conducted last summer—was “seriously flawed”…a new survey showed the Postal Service losing $1.3 billion in revenue.