U.S. Postal Service officials caved to congressional pressure this week and dropped their plan to end Saturday delivery. There has rarely been a more striking illustration of what ails the Postal Service — that would be Congress. Last year, postal officials faced up to their more than $20 billion in losses since 2011 by proposing a slate of drastic cost-cutting measures and management reforms, with termination of Saturday letter delivery being the most visible part of a five-year plan to restore the USPS to something at least approaching profitability.

Saturday package deliveries would have continued under the proposal, but starting Aug. 5 customers would have had to wait until Monday to read those mass fundraising solicitations, credit card offers, vacation time-share pitches and miscellaneous other postal dregs. The $2 billion thereby saved would have significantly slowed the river of red ink that is drowning the Postal Service. As James L. Gattuso of the Heritage Foundation observed of the idea, “It’s a common-sense change and one the Postal Service can ill-afford to put off. USPS is drowning in a tsunami of red ink. It has suffered losses for six consecutive years, losing almost $16 billion last year alone.”