According to Wikipedia Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. The cabinet-level Post Office Department was created in 1792 from Franklin's operation and transformed into its current form in 1971 under the Postal Reorganization Act.

The USPS employs over 574,000 workers and operates over 218,000 vehicles. The USPS is the operator of the largest vehicle fleet in the world. The USPS is legally obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price and quality. The USPS has exclusive access to letter boxes marked "U.S. Mail" and personal letterboxes in the United States, but still competes against private package delivery services, such as UPS and FedEx.

The USPS is an independent agent of the U.S Government.  The USPS has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s with the minor exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters. 

On April 26, 2012 Washington Post wrote an article titled “Bill Affecting, Federal Workers Begin Moving through Congress.”  The article was in reference to Post Master General Patrick Donahoe meeting with Congress on August 25, 2012.  The meeting was about postal reform to save the service of the post office.

With a steady decline in first class mail due to the internet and Congress required overpayment into the retirement system the post office has to restructure its service standards to ensure its survival.  What does the reform has to do with politics?  As mentioned above the post office does not directly receive taxpayer dollars.  Yes, the post office generates its own income.  Even with the decline in first class mail volume, majority of its financial woes come from an overpayment in Civil Service Retirement Fund and Federal Employment Retirement Fund.  The USPS cannot overcome the requirements to prepay retiree health benefits greatly in advance – an imposition unheard of in either the corporate world or by any other government agency.

Removing the devastating fiscal effect of these prepayments would take care of 80 percent of the postal service’s deficit. Moreover, the federal government already owes the postal service.   According to the U.S. Postal Service’s Inspector General the federal government owes over $80 billion dollars in overpayments that the USPS has made to the Civil Service Retirement System and the Federal Employees Retirement System.

Since the USPS does not receive tax dollars why does it not have more control of its organization?  Instead of closing post offices, cutting six day delivery, not providing a service that was established for all American people, and above all eliminating jobs, why not refund the $80 billion dollars back to the post office.  Even though Congress states they do not want to eliminate any of the post offices or services yet, they skip over the real issue of the $80 billion dollar overpayment.  They are contradicting themselves.  The government “takes” more money from a historical company and pays it back by forcing it to downsize.

Congress rarely speaks of the overpayment.  The post office needs to make changes now.  No decision can be made without the approval of the government, which is an ongoing slow process.  Benjamin Franklin is probably turning in his grave knowing that the biggest service provider in the world is faulting because of mismanagement and greed of the government and postal managers.