First-class postage stamps at 49 cents each may be about to go the way of the carrier pigeon. By next month, the Postal Service may be given permission to increase stamp prices dramatically.

Increasing use of online communications has hurt the Postal Service, cutting deeply into its revenue. But, say critics, many in the private sector have had to adapt to change, too. Why can’t the Postal Service?

Because, In part, Congress will not allow the agency to react to change as many in the private sector have. Archaic rules, such as pre-funding health care benefits for retirees, cost the agency billions of dollars a year. Yet Congress, in part because of special-interest lobbying, refuses to let the Postal Service change.

Before Congress stands aside and lets stamp prices continue skyrocketing, lawmakers ought to be held accountable for tying the agency’s hands in some respects.

Otherwise, it will not be long before the 49-cent stamp of today is viewed much the same as its 4-cent cousins were not so many years ago.