How to Save the Post Office
As you know, the U.S. Postal Service is about to lay off thousands of workers and/or eliminate some of its services. And if you listen to the mainstream “media” you probably think the Post Office is in such dire straits because of corrupt unions, or because they’re all just a bunch of faceless inefficient government bureaucrats who don’t care.
FACT: The Post Office is drowning in red ink because of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.
Here’s another link.
This law was passed at the end of 2006 by the lame duck Republican Congress. Under this law, the Post Office was required to pre-fund the health care benefits of all retirees over the next 75 years. And these huge payments had to be made during a ten-year period.
No other government agency — and no private company — is required to do anything remotely similar to this. As of this past June, the U.S. Postal Service had a deficit of $19.5 billion. At that same time, the Postal Service had already made pre-payments of $20.95 billion, as required by the above-mentioned Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.
If that law hadn’t been passed, the Post Office would have a surplus of almost $1.5 billion.
And now, to fix the problem: Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) has introduced a bill that would allow the Post Office to spend more of its own funds to pay down its deficit. This bill is bipartisan, with 193 co-sponsors so far. This is the sensible intelligent solution — for Congress to un-create the problem that it created five years ago.
Or there’s the teatard solution: Darrell Issa (R—Car Thief) is pushing to lay off thousands of postal workers and break the back of the USPS Union. Figures.
Labels: Darrell Issa, Darrell Issa car thief, Post Office deficit, post office layoffs, Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, Rep. Stephen Lynch
posted by Tom Harper @ 6:15 PM
8 Comments:
I am not sure you can place the whole blame for the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act on the republicans. Yes, it was sponsored by a republican, but it was co-sponsored by one other republican and two Democrats. One of the Democrats was Henry Waxman, hardly a conservative Democrat. It was also passed by voice vote in the House and unanimous consent in the Senate so there is no record of individual votes.
Sounds like some funny stuff was going on here.
Both parties suck hairy balls, but what I find funny is amid all the cries of how the private sector can do better, I've had more than one package sent to me via FedEx that magically took a whole fuckload of a time to get here.
It happens with a greedy unionized system, it happens with amoral free marketers. Thus, everyone is crap.
Leave it to Congress to have passed such a ridiculous bill in 2006, and leave it to ol' hardass rich crook Issa to introduce such a pathetically drastic one today!
And wouldn't you know there are more corporate fingers at the throat of the Post Office.
Postal Service Board Dominated by Corporate Execs, Lawyers, Lobbyists
http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/USPS09272011.htm
Color me shocked once again. No not really but damn, when will this ever end, my burning desire to go somewhere and slit my own wrists while in the fetal position, so I don't have to hear about stuff like this.
Jerry: Thanks for the link. There's so much "funny stuff" going on, it doesn't even faze me any more. I usually vote Democratic since the Democrats have better soundbites, and there are a few of them who actually mean what they say. But for the most part, both parties are owned and operated by the wealthiest 1% of the population.
Randal: I'm in total agreement about the hairy balls part. Also the part about the private sector being no more, or less, efficient than those faceless government bureaucrats.
Jack: Issa sucks. His constituents must be some of the dumbest voters in the country if they keep re-electing him.
Dave: Thanks for the link. For some reason, this isn't surprising.
Jess: It's enough to make one sit on the couch, get blotto and turn on the TV and watch mind candy all day and night. (Well, not quite.)
I don't know what the Democrats who signed on to this were thinking, or if they were thinking at all. They should be guests of honor at a mass butt-kicking marathon.
In the meantime, there are people in purple states here in the West who had better start putting pressure on their Republican reps to pass Lynch's bill, or they might regret loss of post offices and postal services. Of course, some are backward and ideologically warped enough to welcome the loss.
interesting post.
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