Thom Hartmann: Dark Night of the Soul for the Post Office!

[thomhartmann]

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR, 4th District) joins Thom Hartmann. The Poison Pill for the Postal Service.

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings

[Poll_Blind]

1. Amazing interview highlighting the poison pill slipped in by the Senate.

Go Pete!

PB

[pam4water]

2. I wondered how they slipped that in.

[japple]

3. "They" sneaked it in. Who is "they." Who sponsored this piece of legislation?

Who did this. 'scuse me, while I go searching for some answers. If anyone has them, please post.

[japple]

4. GWB gets by with a little help from his friend(s)...Issa

"The health of the Postal Service lies largely in the hands of Congress, which has made a tremendous accounting strategy error. In 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Postal Accountability Act that requires the agency for 10 years to pre-pay retiree pensions 75 years in advance. As a consequence, the agency has added a whopping $5.5 billion annually to its balance sheet and will continue to do so until 2017.

"The post office is a part of our national identity. The Constitution of 1789 empowers Congress 'to establish post offices and post roads'. The post office helped to link together our fledgling nation. The first postmaster general was Benjamin Franklin .

"Today, the agency maintains 32,000 outposts and employs more than 600,000 citizens, the second largest employer after Walmart. It supports every community in the country and provides the most efficient and cheapest delivery service among the world's top 20 largest economies.

"The pre-payment strategy could bankrupt the post office as early as this year. No other government agency is required to pre-pay retiree pensions to this extent. Most agencies prepay pensions for 20 to 30 years.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/issa-blocks-fix-of-post-office-pension-prepay-time-bomb-says-robert-weiner-former-spokesman-for-us-house-govt-reform-comm-bipartisan-bill-has-229-sponsors-but-chairman-issa-pushes-privatization-159224595.html