Senate Seeks Ways To Save Ailing US Postal Service

[Galraedia]

Last edited Tue Apr 17, 2012, 03:01 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — With big postal cuts looming, the Senate is deciding whether to stabilize the ailing U.S. Postal Service with a short-term cash infusion while delaying most decisions on closing post offices and ending Saturday mail delivery by requiring further review.

The mail agency, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, says it needs to begin closing thousands of low-revenue post offices and mail processing centers this year as part of a billion-dollar cost-cutting effort to become profitable again by 2015. But local communities are fretting about the economic impact and tens of thousands of layoffs, drawing the concerns of lawmakers in an election year.

Late last year, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe agreed to delay closings until May 15 so that Congress would have time to pass legislation to shore up the agency's finances.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/17/postal-service-cuts-senate_n_1431714.html?ref=politics

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At the very end of 2006, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA). Under PAEA, USPS was forced to “prefund its future health care benefit payments to retirees for the next 75 years in an astonishing ten-year time span” — meaning that it had to put aside billions of dollars to pay for the health benefits of employees it hasn’t even hired yet, something “that no other government or private corporation is required to do.”

Contact your congressional leaders and tell them to end the PAEA mandate that is killing the USPS http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

[Nay]

1. Oh, BULLSHIT. They know exactly how to save the USPS--don't make them fund retirement all

the way for the next 75 years!! Like no other company, public or private, is required to do!

[zbdent]

4. if a dem had said that a business needed to show a 75-year profit margin prior

he would be called anti-business in America.

[annabanana]

5. No kidding. This really ISN'T a heavy lift!

They are trying to kill the Post Office, not save it.

[Hawkowl]

7. Exactly

Congress is deliberately destroying the post office.

[Smilo]

8. Ain't that the truth....

just repeal the stupid laws and the USPS will be in great shape.

[Snake Alchemist]

19. The USPS did not fund it's pension from 08/2011 through 11/2011 and still lost billions

during that time period.

[UpInArms]

30. this stupid requirement

Was an agreement that was done because the Bush admin wanted it to fund the debt he was racking up - it made that particular spending bio "debt neutral "

[MisterP]

2. 1.) Sell it to Halliburton. 2.) Require that everyone spend $200 a month in stamps.

3.) Toot their own horn about how they guaranteed that everyone has $200 worth of mail now! Whee!

[liberal N proud]

3. They could put the money back they took from the Post Office

Oh, they never think about that!!!!

[elleng]

6. Thanks. Contacting.

[elleng]

9. Letter to my Senators. May be used by others.

I understand the Senate is presently considering taking action to stabilize the U.S. Postal Service with a short-term cash infusion while delaying most decisions on closing post offices and ending Saturday mail delivery.

I expect you recognize the real solution to this problem would be to end the ill-considered PAEA mandate that is killing the USPS. Your support of such action would gain my contuing support.

Yours truly,

[Iliyah]

10. Retirement funding future 75 years and beyond

is total bullshit. Congress can save the US Post Office but the goppers want it to fail alongwith America. They are such hateful people.

[Snake Alchemist]

20. The USPS did not fund it's pension from 08/2011 through 11/2011 and still lost billions

during that time period.

[cstanleytech]

25. Wouldnt a year comparison be better to use rather than a 3 month one?

[Snake Alchemist]

26. Unfortunately, that is the only time period for which they did not fund their pension.

The pension is not the reason they are hemorrhaging money. The business is just changing. A tax on email would probably go a long way.

[cstanleytech]

32. A tax on email? I suspect that would go over as well as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

Edit: BTW you dont have to keep repeating the same thing over and over in the thread unless of course your padding your post count.

[Snake Alchemist]

33. I don't see why it wouldn't be feasible. Even just one cent per email would go a long way?

Is there a reward or some sort for more posts?

[cstanleytech]

34. And how do you propose to tax it? What about the free emailers? How about IMs? Tax them to?

And no, there is no reward though there are some people who are vain enough to believe that a higher post count makes what they say more important that what someone else says.

[Daniel537]

11. Democrats should have dealt with this issue during the last congress.

The GOP is hell bent on destroying the USPS. They know what it takes to save it, and they won't do a damn thing about it. Yet another missed opportunity.

[gtar100]

12. 75 Years of retirement funding in 10 years? That can't be true.

CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX aren't mentioning it in their hourly news updates or news shows. All they're saying is that the Post Office is going bankrupt.

Therefore, Congress doesn't care and the great masses don't see it.

Need any more proof of intentional propaganda and manipulation of the US? Well, of course not on DU. But out in the great expanse of the US, ignorance reigns supreme and Congress takes advantage of it.

What can we do? Tell everyone we know about it. In fact, tell them this:

1) The Post Office does not receive taxpayer money; it has been a self-sustaining operation.

2) The law requiring 75 years of retirement funding to be accumulated and set aside in 10 years was all done by Republicans. Who else?

People will not hear about it from their favorite news anchor tool working for CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX. They all suck and do their best to only tell you what they want you to hear.

Only real liberal media will tell the truth.

[Galraedia]

15. Ed Schultz mentioned it.

[Snake Alchemist]

21. The USPS did not fund it's pension from 08/2011 through 11/2011 and still lost billions

during that time period.

[freshwest]

13. Thanks for bringing this up again. It's so unfair what they've done to the USPS.

[anti-alec]

14. Here's your solution: Reverse what the Thugs did in 2006.

There is no need to pre-pay the pension funds any more - they are sufficiently funded for the next 40 years.

[thelordofhell]

16. The GOP dismantling of the USPS in 3 easy steps

Step 1-----make the USPS prefund 75 years worth of retiree benefits

Step 2-----sell off now ailing USPS

Step 3-----buyers loot the overfunded benefit system

[Judi Lynn]

17. Thanks for bringing it into real focus. I hadn't considered Step 3, but of COURSE you're right!

Monstrously conceived, isn't it?

They decided to fatten it before they kill it. Pure evil.

[Snake Alchemist]

22. The USPS did not fund it's pension from 08/2011 through 11/2011 and still lost billions

during that time period.

[SaveAmerica]

18. Anyone tight with a Congressperson? Get a dozen of them on board to reverse this ASAP!!

Let's say they get this next temporary save. We should set up a place here on DU to keep track of DUers who are in talks with their Congressperson until we have a decent number of them who agree to work on it.

Ten years from the passing of this act is only 4 years away, where is that money? What will happen to it if the Post Office folds? Why can't that money be used to fix the Post Office's deficits?

Signed, someone whose husband works in the PO and has been looking for a job JIC and has a dark vision of the future that involves a no-bid contract and more money in Dick Cheney's pocket.

[KamaAina]

23. 1. Don't make them fund 75 years of retirement benefits.

2. See No. 1.

[Snake Alchemist]

24. The USPS did not fund it's pension from 08/2011 through 11/2011 and still lost billions

during that time period.

[julian09]

27. Repugs want to privatize postal service.

They passed this in lame duck session of 06 before Polosi became speaker in 07.

[SaveAmerica]

28. Already spiraling by then, in '10 they fired everyone on my husband's shift at distribution ctr

He was safe because he was deployed to Iraq (Ha Ha but not really). Some post offices and distribution centers closed and work was re-routed to those that stayed open, levels of mail rise in places where numbers of employees lower, the result; a mess. People get mad because delivery isn't as efficient and stop using the PO for whatever even if they they're paying more for a service that doesn't do as much and is closed on the weekend. More mess to the mess, welcome to 08/2011 to 11/2011.

A mess was made, the desperate fix made it worse and people complain thinking that it's just the PO's fault because your average man on the street doesn't know the details.

We really need to work together to put out these fires everywhere.

[SaveAmerica]

29. Rally in Charlotte, NC to get Senators to create amendments to Act that will help USPS

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/postal-workers-rally-front-local-post-office/nMbYb/

[senseandsensibility]

31. Thanks for this thread about the Post Office

I hope everyone writes their rep.