The Post Office is a Manufactured Crisis by Congress, and the Corporate Media is Lying about it!

[Fight2Win]

It is true that USPS is facing fiscal challenges — it lost nearly $20 billion over the last four years and is at risk of not being able to meet a $5.5 billion mandated payment to the Treasury at the end of this month (which has been put off six weeks thanks to the last continuing resolution in Congress).

But what has been lost in the political debate over the Post Office is why it is losing this money. Major media coverage points to the rise of email or Internet services and the inefficiency of the post model as the major culprits. While these factors may cause some fiscal pain, almost all of the postal service’s losses over the last four years can be traced back to a single, artificial restriction forced onto the Post Office by the Republican-led Congress in 2006.

At the very end of that year, 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.”

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/09/28/330524/postal-non-crisis-post-office-save-itself/?mobile=nc

I would also add that we need to end the Homeland Security regulation (the entire department/unaudited slush fund) that requires all mail to be sent through a major city.

This is not providing safety, but it is causing postal workers to have to work extra, and driving up the costs in fuel as mail is shipped for large distances and back again for no apparent reason.

[louis-t]

1. Of course, we know why this is happening.

Repugs want to drive USPS out of business so they can privatize.

[Fight2Win]

2. no doubt

but we need to use the net to fight these lies.

Everyone needs to Stop allowing Congress and their enabling media to blame the post office for what they did!

[LisaLynne]

3. They have been after the Post Office for years.

It's been like a weird little back-burner obsession with them.

[green for victory]

4. the problem with that theory

is that the 2006 law was co sponsored by 2 dems

one of which is uber lib Henry Waxman

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/109/hr6407#overview

[blm]

10. Dems foolishly believing it would BENEFIT the workers. BushInc only wanted to DESTROY

the USPS so it could be privatized. Destroy it by pretending to be saving it. Like the fascists did to the public schools and the military.

[librabear]

9. The vote was nearly Unanimous

It was presented by a republican but had two cosponsors, Henry Waxman and another democrat from Illinois.

Tell me again how this is the republican's fault.

[brentspeak]

24. It is the Republicans' fault

because it was a Republican who inserted the prefunding requirement into the Senate version of the bill -- the version which eventually got passed by a Republican-controlled House and Senate, and signed into law by a Republican president.

Waxman and "another democrat from Illinois" were minority party co-sponsors of the House version, which didn't feature the prefunding requirement.

Needless to say (except perhaps to you), it's kind of difficult for minority party members to prevent the majority party members from sculpting legislation (and then passing it).

[librabear]

27. That would have made them the party of no, right?

You're right, hypocrisy doesn't exist; except in the Republican Party.

[Plucketeer]

19. And our president STILL hasn't found some

"comfortable shoes" to wear whilst standing with the union workers at the Post Office. Only 47 months left to find tolerable footwear!

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. It is absolutely a created crisis (disaster capitalism). Follow the money to those who would profit.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

32. UPS, FedEx and others would profit from demise of the US Postal Service

[deutsey]

6. Unfortunately, this is not widely known n/t

[Fight2Win]

8. make it so

We won this election on the net, we have more power than we realize.

Why everyone continues to follow the lying corporate media news stories is anyone's guess.

The corporate media liars said Romney was going to win in a landslide. They are evil, corrupt. stupid money grubbers....

We know the media is not liberal and liars and hate it, Republicans think it is liberal and hate it....why is it then that we are all still watching and waiting for them, their stories, their spin, their distractions?

We have to stop allowing them to lead the discussion in this country and call them out on their bullshit.

[deutsey]

11. For what it's worth, I've spread it around

way back when I first learned about it last year on Democracy Now

[HiPointDem]

7. kr

[proverbialwisdom]

12. Truthout.org has done excellent reporting on this subject. nt

[Dont call me Shirley]

13. My question has been, "Who actually is in line to steal the Post Office pensions?"

Beacause they are being amassed to be stolen. But by who?

[leftstreet]

14. DURec

Thanks for posting that link

[titanicdave]

15. Exactly.....

and we can thank the rethugs in the lame duck session of congress in 2006 for passing such ridiculous legistlation

[FarCenter]

16. How much per year would the USPS pay to fund the future health benefits of its employees/retirees?

The schedule in the legislation is about 5.5 billion per year for 10 years. If you only consider the health care benefits promised to current employees and retirees, how much per year over 10 years would be required to fund that?

[beachgirl2365]

17. THANK YOU!!!!!

for pointing this out!!!! Finally! Now if we could get the MSM to ignore their Corp. handlers marching orders and make the general public more aware!

[beachgirl2365]

18. Ok.... Who did the passing of PAEA in the Rethug 2006 Congress help?

It really makes you wonder who got what kickbacks and which corporations lobbied to get this crap passed in the first place!

[senseandsensibility]

20. KICK

Thanks for posting this. It's amazing how many here don't know about this.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. Kick

[Blue Idaho]

22. Congress can easily fix the Post Office problem they created

So the real question is - why won't they? How much are they making on this deal?

[tclambert]

25. With Darrell Issa (R-CA) it's about hurting union workers, of course.

[Blue Idaho]

30. True fact that! nt.

[tclambert]

23. In Canada, first class stamps are 63¢.

That's 17¢ more than here. Other developed countries charge even more. In Germany (where they privatized the postal service) it costs about 75¢ for first class. If we hiked rates here to match Canada's rates, the USPS would take in about $20 billion more per year. And I did factor in the reduction in mail higher prices would cause. (They usually figure it takes a 5¢ hike to get 4¢ more in revenue.)

The Postmaster General and Republicans in Congress refuse to discuss rate increases. They clearly don't want the Post Office to continue its 237 years of success. They want to privatize. Then the new Postal Corp. can increase rates to a dollar per letter (a little bit at a time, like they do with gasoline prices) and the new Postmaster CEO can give himself a $20 million bonus.

[Festivito]

28. That's 17 cents Canadian over 63 cents Canadian. Hey, a dime for free health care! I'll buy.

Canadian money is currently at par, due to the bungling Bush admin we had. They should be about 10% behind US. But, even so, 63 cents is not bad. I doubt we'd call that a war on Christmas.

[aquart]

26. Yes.

[Festivito]

29. I cannot believe that NONE of our media know this. They are ALL LYING, ALL OF THEM.

And, I mean to yell.

This is frustrating.

The story should not be about cutting Saturday delivery, it should be about cutting Saturday delivery because Republicans put in place a ridiculous requirement that the current Republicans refuse to drop.

...Which is why cockroaches have a higher approval rating than Congress.

[hay rick]

31. K&R

[Fight2Win]

33. kick

nt

[CarmanK]

34. ED SHOW had great exposure on this attack on middle class wkers and the US consitution.

Beware of the blowhards who stand in public and express their dedication to the consttitution and then when challenged RUN AND HIDE. The USPS is in the constitution to serve everyone across the country equally in urban and rural areas. What the 2006 Republicans LAME DUCK congress did was an abomination and spittle on the constitution. It was a blatant act to cripple the USPS and enhance privatization. Except there is not profit in serving rural areas and over 3000 rural POs are in jeopardy of being closed along with the shuttering of SATURDAY MAIL Service. THE REPUBLICANS HAVE NOT DEVELOPED A SINGLE SOUND FISCAL POLICY IN OVER 30 years, and they have done a lot of damage with their malfeasance on all levels of govt.