Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Here are some questions for you:
– Do you know how the United States Postal Service (USPS) is funded?
– Do you know why the USPS is having such serious financial problems?
– Would the closing of more than 200 postal processing centers and more than 3,000 post offices across this country, eliminating Saturday mail delivery, and cutting more than 100,000 postal jobs be the best way to save the USPS?
– Would slowing down mail delivery help the USPS to take in more revenue?
– What would happen to rural communities if their post offices were closed?
– What do you know about the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006?
– Have you heard about H.R. 1351?
Yes, the USPS is experiencing serious financial problems. I’ve heard on the news and read in the papers that drastic measures must be undertaken in order to save this great American institution. I think that it’s important to understand the causes of those problems and to know what could happen to the US Postal Service unless Congress solves them without severely impacting the institution and the services it provides to Americans.
Josh Eidelson’s Salon article Congress’s war on the post office: The Postal Service faces a threat greater than email or economics: Politics (March 14, 2012) helps provide some information on the issue:
The U.S. Postal Service is at risk of defaulting on healthcare obligations or exceeding its debt limit by the end of the year. Last month, USPS management unveiled a “Path to Profitability” that would eliminate over a hundred thousand jobs, end Saturday service and loosen overnight delivery guarantees. The Postal Service also proposes to shutter thousands of post offices. “Under the existing laws, the overall financial situation for the Postal Service is poor,” says CFO Joe Corbett. Republicans have been more dire, and none more so than Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, who warned of a “crisis that is bringing USPS to the brink of collapse.”
Listening to Issa, you’d never know that the post office’s immediate crisis is largely of Congress’s own making. Conservatives aren’t wrong to say that the shift toward electronic mail – what USPS calls “e-diversion” – poses a challenge for the Postal Service’s business model. (The recent drop-off in mail is also a consequence of the recession-induced drop in advertising.)
But even so, in the first quarter of this fiscal year, the post office would have made an operational profit, if not for a 75-year healthcare “pre-funding” mandate that applies to no other public or private institution in the United States.
Warren Gunnels, aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders, calls that mandate “the poison pill that has hammered the Postal Service … over 80 percent of the Postal Service deficit since that was enacted was entirely due to the pre-funding requirement.”
This death hug was part of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which was passed on a voice vote by a lame duck Republican Congress in 2006…
As reported by CNN, the USPS has claimed that a number of its difficulties were caused BY the federal government “– through a law governing how the agency funds workers’ retirement health benefits.” It has also been reported that prior to 2007—when the mandated prefunding of healthcare benefits began—the Postal Service actually generated a small profit.
The act/law referred to above required that the USPS prefund retiree healthcare benefits for workers for the next 75 years…in just ten years (2007-2016). That means the USPS has to continue to cough up $5.5 billion annually to meet the funding mandate for another five years. No other government entity or agency has been required to do the same by Congress. Why has the Postal Service—an institution that provides valuable services to businesses and to millions of Americans—been singled out?
Allison Kilkenny thinks that the people who are working to destroy the USPS as we know it are motivated by a desire to bust the strongest union in the country and to help pave the road to privatization. She wrote the following in a Truth-out article titled Postal Workers: The Last Union:
The recent attacks against the United States Postal Service (USPS) are more than signs of desperate times – a natural sunset moment for a service rendered archaic by FedEx and UPS. Rather, the Postal Service has been under constant, vicious assault for years from the right, who views this as an epic battle with the goal of finally taking down the strongest union in the country, the second largest employer in the United States (second only to Wal-Mart,) and a means to roll the country ever closer toward the abyss of privatization. The Postal Service, which is older than the Constitution itself, stands at a precipice. If this great institution, which provides one of the oldest, most reliable services in the country, is permitted to fall and Congress kills its great union, then truly no collective bargaining rights, no worker contract, no union will be safe within the United States.
As the USPS spirals toward default, the historically uncontroversial mail service system has suddenly become a hot-button issue. It’s an unlikely organization to inspire such hysteria. The Postal Service isn’t paid for by taxpayer dollars, but rather fully funded by the sale of stamps. It’s easy to forget what a marvel this is – that today, in 2011, one can still mail a letter clear across the country for less than 50 cents. And if the impressiveness of that feat still hasn’t sunk in, attempt this brain exercise: consider what else you can buy for $0.44.
It was only a few years ago that the USPS was considered not only stable, but thriving. The biggest volume in pieces of mail handled by the Postal Service in its 236-year history was in 2006. The second and third busiest years were in 2005 and 2007, respectively. But it was two events: one crafted during the Bush years and another supervised by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa that would cripple this once great institution.
Allison Kilkenny Talks with Sam Seder about the USPS on Countdown (9/9/2011)
Cliff Guffey, president of the American Postal Workers Union, believes that the law would do more than “cripple” the USPS. He believes it was designed “by those people who hate government … to destroy the Postal Service. And that’s what they did.”
In addition to requiring the Postal Service to prefund retiree healthcare benefits, Josh Eidelson said that the law also limits the institution’s capacity to change and grow with the times: “The new law also restricted the Postal Service’s ability to raise postage rates, or to provide ‘nonpostal services’ that, in an e-diversion era, could be key to its future.”
Matt Taibbi wrote on his Rolling Stone blog that barring the USPS from offering “nonpostal services” means that it can’t “open up a bank, or an internet cafe, or come up with any new entrepreneurial ideas to generate new income, as postal services do in other countries.”
Like Kilkenny, Taibbi thinks that the purpose of the law—pushed by lobbyists—“was to break a public sector union and privatize the mail industry.” Taibbi added, “Post offices also have a huge non-financial impact: In a lot of small towns, the post office is the town, and shutting them down will basically remove the only casual meeting place for people in mountain areas and remote farming villages and so on…This is a classic example of private-sector lobbyists using the government to protect its profits and keep prices inflated.”
From a special report on the USPS post office closings published by Reuters earlier this year:
Some of America’s poorest communities – many of them with spotty broadband Internet coverage – stand to suffer most if the struggling agency moves ahead with plans to shutter thousands of post offices later this year, a Reuters analysis found. Nearly 80 percent of the 3,830 post offices under consideration are in sparsely populated rural areas where poverty rates are higher than the national average, demographic data analyzed by Reuters shows…
The Postal Service is not studying the economic impact on communities where post offices are slated to close, spokesman David Partenheimer said. But in the 3,004 rural communities across 48 states where post offices may close, many residents fear the impact will be pronounced.
About 2.9 million people live in the rural communities where the post office that may close is either the only one or one of two post offices serving their zip code area. For many rural residents, that would translate into longer drives to mail packages, pay bills or buy stamps.
According to Postal Reporter News, in February the USPS “informed tens of thousands of employees that it plans to close mail processing facilities. The decisions are not final. No closings will occur before May 15. Postmaster General Patrick Donahue agreed to that timetable under moratorium proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders to give Congress time to act.” Sanders said the USPS’s plan is “deeply flawed” and that Congress must change it. He said that he expected “comprehensive postal reform legislation to be on the floor of the Senate within the next few weeks.” He added, “At a time when the Postal Service is competing against the instantaneous delivery of information from email and the Internet, slowing down mail delivery service will result in less business and less revenue, and will bring about a death spiral for this institution which is so vitally important for all Americans.”
Sanders continued, “A critical weakness of the current Postal Service plan is that it ignores the onerous financial burden being placed on the Postal Service by $5.5 billion a year in pre-payments for future retiree health benefits. According to the Postal Service inspector general, those payments are no longer necessary because of the $45 billion which that account already has accumulated. The Postal Service needs to be reformed not by massive cuts, but by a new entrepreneurial business model which expands the products and services the post office can sell in the 21st century digital age.”
In the following video, Senator Sanders speaks about ways in which the USPS could be modernized and provide additional services to customers that it doesn’t provide today:
There are other members of Congress like Sanders who are trying to find ways to help save the USPS. One of them is Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts. On April 4, 2011, he—on behalf of himself and Elijah Cummings of Maryland— introduced H.R.1351: United States Postal Service Pension Obligation Recalculation and Restoration Act of 2011. This bill would “amend the provisions of title 5, United States Code, relating to the methodology for calculating the amount of any Postal surplus or supplemental liability under the Civil Service Retirement System, and for other purposes.”
From the NALC FACT SHEET (National Association of Letter Carriers):
Lynch’s bill once again takes a big step toward making sure the Postal Service is treated in a fair and equitable manner, allowing it to overcome the very difficult financial challenges it currently faces. In addition to addressing the CSRS overcharge, H.R. 1351 also deals with the more recent finding regarding another overcharge to the USPS related to the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). Even so, H.R. 1351 only addresses the CSRS and FERS overcharges and does not repeal the onerous, legally mandated, annual pre-funding payments into the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund (PSRHBF)…
H.R. 1351 does not address the legally mandated pre-funding payments into the PSRHBF beyond the FY2011 payment, which costs the USPS $5.5 billion annually. Rather, it simply fixes the massive over-funding to the postal CSRS and FERS accounts. Additional legislation would be necessary to repeal the future scheduled pre-funding payments to the PSRHBF.
Mark Anderson wrote the following in The Daily Cougar last September: “Currently, a 44 cent stamp will get a letter from Houston to New York in two to three days. According to the FedEx website, two-day delivery of a similar letter to the same destination will cost between $20-30 dollars.”
Shock Doctrine at U.S. Postal Service: Is A Manufactured Crisis Behind Push to Privatize? (Democracy Now)
How the Right Wing Destroyed the U.S. Postal Service (Majority Report with Sam Seder)
I wonder if most Americans would prefer to send mail via the USPS—or by FedEx. I wonder if most Americans would like to see our Postal Service privatized. I wonder how many Americans would like to see post offices in their cities and towns shuttered. I wonder how many Americans would like our elected representatives to find solutions to the problems facing the USPS that won’t include drastically reducing the number of postal carriers, post offices, and processing centers in this country–and slowing down the delivery of our mail.
SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Postal Workers: The Last Union (Truth-out)
Postal Service pleads for help as losses continue (CNN)
Is benefits law dragging down the Postal Service? (CNN)
Don’t Let Business Lobbyists Kill the Post Office (TAIBBLOG)
Privatization of US Postal Service could be costly (The Daily Cougar)
Republicans pushing to privatize USPS (Coloradoan)
Post Office is vital, hamstrung by Congress (Daily Review Atlas)
ALEC/Koch Cabal Pursuing Privatization of the US Postal Service for UPS and FedEx… (Voters legislative Transparency Project)
Special Report: Towns go dark with post office closings (Reuters)
Post office closings may increase rural isolation, economic disparity (Washington Post)
Senate Passes Postal Reform (Senator Bernie Sanders, Vermont)
Is Your Post Office Closing? USPS Is Studying Shuttering 3,700 Locations (NPR)
USPS Closings Could be Averted With Senate Bill (Christian Post)
H.R. 6407 (109th): Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act
Rain, Snow, Sleet and Congress (New York Times)
Shock Doctrine at U.S. Postal Service: Is a Manufactured Crisis Behind Push Toward Privatization? (Democracy Now)
USPS Postal Service Countdown Clock (Senator Tom Carper, Delaware)
NALC FACT SHEET (National Association of Letter Carriers)
Sen. Sanders Calls Postal Service Plan ‘Deeply Flawed’ (Postal Report News)
Co-sponsors of HR 1351 (PopVox)
So is your post office on the chopping block? The Postal Service released this state-by-state list of retail locations that could be affected.
cb, you nailed it. The post office and Medicare/Medicaid could be run for many decades, if not centuries, for the amount of money we have spent on the misadventures in the middle east. In the process, we managed to make a lot of people who disliked and distrusted us, hate us with a white heat. Good job there, military-industrial complex.
Congress just wants to downsize the government and they want to get rid of the USPS and say they downsized the government by 500,000 employes, but what they won’t tell the public is that they didn’t save a penny.
Correction: Typo above: Flint Strike was 1937.
Speaking of working peoples’ conditions in the 19th vs. 20th century, let’s not forget that unions were basically illegal until the Flint Sit Down Strike of 1927.
Ironic how far the working class in the US has been stomped backwards under the Iron Heel deregulation era started by Regan as now in the 21st century unions are being outlawed again circa WI & IN.
What an utter fraud & sham the notion of free market capitalism has proven to be, especially since the jackboots of militarism have not only bankrupted the economy but have grotesquely undermined civil liberties.
Congrats to those contributors here who’ve concluded that voting for the “lesser evil” this November this election is still casting a vote for evil.
Bron:
“you shouldnt blame FDR” ???
What ever made you think I “blame” FDR? I respect and am grateful for FDR.
firefly:
“BTW, in case you hadn’t noticed, Congress HAS been cutting spending (state aid, for one) and lowering taxes for years, but we don’t seem to be out of the recession, do we?”
Do you call spending 3-5 trillion dollars in the last 2-3 years cutting spending?
How does that work?
Oh and Paul Ryans budget is about 3.3 trillion and the Pres’s is about 3.5 trillion. We are going down unless we cut spending. At this point we probably ought to raise taxes 2-5% on everyone but only if there are commitments to serious budget cuts and a balanced budget amendment. Enough borrowing from every Tom, Dick and Hui.
firefly:
“there was no unemployment insurance, no compensation for work-related accidents that ended one’s working life, no sick pay, and no pensions; so, workers had to provide for all those eventualities themselves. . .”
yes, they were called mutual aid societies and worked pretty well from what I have read about them.
“The Depression of the 1920s was nothing like the Great Depression of the 1930s. Herbert Hoover adopted the same strategy Harding had used, and things just got worse and worse and worse and worse.”
Hoover actually did a good many things and handed Roosevelt a mess. Granted Franklin made it worse but Hoover played a very large part. Just like the idiot Bush did with TARP which gave Obama some moral and intellectual cover to do his idiot part.
I dont blame Obama for everything and you shouldnt blame FDR, Hoover deserves a good deal of credit for screwing our granparents and great grandparents. And we are still feeling the intellectual screwing Keynes gave us.
Keynes was British after all and I understand the Brits were big on Rum, Buggery and the Lash. The only thing Keynes didnt do was make us a Mojito.
“In the immortal words of Gertrude Stein, in the respect that you view a blog undertone exists vis-a-vis the “Ins” and the “Outs” –
“There is no there, there”.
I hate when I blow a punch line.
Blouise,
One last and you will be free of this gadfly.
Did see this by me at Dan Savage thread? Magnificent.
Wait, you haven’t read it yet. Don’t run. Oh, dear.
Well anyway.
I am proud to be insane but ashamed of the many persecutions our religions’ separate insanities have caused all over the world.
I am proud to be an American, but ashamed of the many wars that my country has pursued since the given purposes were obvious lies., to which I assented.
I am proud to be a world citizen, of whatever nation, but ashamed that I, craven as the rest, have not forced the powerful, by our simple numbers, to cease and desist their evils.
I am proud to stand alone, “strong” although fearful of the man standing next to me, for he will certainly SYG-kill me in his wisdom.
I am proud to let my govenment in its wisdom, deprive me slowly of my socialization so that I dare not in solidarity communicate as man has done since before mindcontrol was discovered.
Lastly, I am proud to persecute those weaker and nearest me while affecting real or feigned disgust at the useless creatures who hunger for jobs as the Republican cohort draw down all job creating investment so as to defeat Obama—–and then enslave us all.
Most especially I am proud of the eternal leaders, who confirm my god-given male dominace rights and their use since creation to chattelize and debase the female animals who serve us, and to ignore the animals’ claim to being also god’s children.
I am proud of many more things, but the labors of my listeners should be spared to other needed issues., as they are many. My leaders tell me so.
Lastly, I am proud to be at JT’s as here even insanity, hypocrisy, moral turpitude and diverse other infirmaties are permitted those of such high quality as myself. I will now reconfirm my oath of allegiance.
“Our insanity, which is eternal, grant me a continuing power to be inspired by the weaknesses of my next, and use them to create more inequity and misery in our world, so as to bring a rapid demise of all life, as our leaders and God says we should, and to bring out a joint halleluja in praise of the golden “Baal of progress” in returning to a proto-human state. Acchooo!!!………………Sorry, I meant Amen.
I thank my next “Think of the Children”, and thanks to God who guides us both.
—————————————————————————————-
“I’m proud to be a Christian, but ashamed of the hate-mongering that passed for religion in so much of the world.” by “Think of the Children”..
Blouise,
I suspect that you all have an open chat line so MikeS can say: “I’m tired. Can you take IDiot707 for us? He’s such a pain.”
I mean you are the creme de la creme, and GeneH says you talk about us commoners at “your” place. Just snooping and showing off. Just had my 14th birthday. OK, like 12, but am trying to impress you.
Blouise,
I said the same chastising myself last evening. But, the sheer bravado, the weird leaps, the stupid constipated text……where else can that be found? Nowhere, thank god—besides you all is just jealous (my imitation of Pogo).
If there were more display I think I would be satisfied. But reading other rants with Bron tire my patience.
And my POVs are special, call’em asinine, but call’em.
No more whining for now.
I don’t expect anybody to lick my ear, but a wow sometime would be nice. How else can I relax and stop my oral diarrhea?
Cheers, and thanks.
Tru’dat, someone would have commented your words.
Gotta get my anti-runs medicine out.
“just wondering how such talent can be ignored (mild hyperbole)” (id707)
‘Cause everybody’s too busy showing off their own talent 😉
For those debating when capitalists had it best, may I contribute the following:
It was when James Madison told then that the purpose of the Constitution was “to protect the opulent from the rest”.
MikeS, Blouise and other sane people,
I write my insame and beautful pieces, and nobody applauds.
Nobody says got jump in the lake.
Am thinking of doing a BRON. Just to get some shit thrown at me. Not complaining or whining, just wondering how such talent can be ignored (mild hyperbole)
“I write my insame and beautful pieces, and nobody applauds.
Nobody says got jump in the lake.”
“Just wondering how such talent can be ignored (mild hyperbole)”
ID707,
We like having you around and you are now a regular, but sometimes you go off in so many expository tangents that it is difficult to follow the line of your reasoning, much less respond. You yourself even call some of your pieces insane. Now people who’ve been here a while know that for better or worse, I at times have revealed much about myself, perhaps more than was needed and/or interesting. If I have crossed that line people have been kind enough to just ignore it, sound familiar?
I may be wrong, but I think it shows in your writing, that you think that behind the scenes all the regulars are communicating with each other. There really is less communication than you might expect. The guest bloggers occasionally exchange E Mails, but that is usually about behind the scenes issues at the blog and almost never about people who aren’t guest bloggers, except in times of sadness for certain long timers. I the immortal words of Gertrude Stein, in the respect that you view a blog undertone vis-a-vis the “Ins” and the “Outs” –
“There is not there, there”.
If all I did was congratulate people on the perspicacity of their comments, than I would bore the hell out of people and spend too much of my life commenting here. Chill, you’re one of us, just as Bron is, though I find your views much more amenable even though Bron is also a good person. I personally define “good” and “bad” people by their ability to have empathy for their fellow humans.
Bron:
Whatever you may think about the relevance of “real wages” in the 1800s, there was no unemployment insurance, no compensation for work-related accidents that ended one’s working life, no sick pay, and no pensions; so, workers had to provide for all those eventualities themselves and, trust me, life was pretty grim for most factory and industrial workers in the 1800s and early 1900s.
The Depression of the 1920s was nothing like the Great Depression of the 1930s. Herbert Hoover adopted the same strategy Harding had used, and things just got worse and worse and worse and worse.
Next you’ll be telling us Harding was a great president. Good luck with that!
BTW, in case you hadn’t noticed, Congress HAS been cutting spending (state aid, for one) and lowering taxes for years, but we don’t seem to be out of the recession, do we?
Nick,
Point to one society which in reality functions as your ideal would.
Neither can BRON. Go have a beer together. No, don’t, they would not have any strawmen like you left to defeat. They would be left with silently contemplating their own lack of solutions which are “shovel-ready”.
FIREFLY:
Ok, believe what you want. Real wages doubled in the 19th century without the labor movement.
Real wages are down in the 20th century. Most of the regulations Hoover and Roosevelt enacted were unnecessary. Harding had a depression in 1920 and cut government spending and lowered taxes, end of depression.
The tax code in the 1950’s has little relevance today since there were very few people making over 400k. 400k in the 50’s is worth well north of 2 million dollars today.
Mike
you call me stupid..ok. Let me see:
Russia as capitalistic? Are you serious? What part of command and control have they freed up? They are far, FAR from capitalistic.
Tired cliche? Ok, let’s find some quotes from the comments section:
“Conservatives seem to not understand or want to be a part of our community” (key word is community)
“Privatization” is a word the plutocrats use when they want to plunder the 99% some more.” (*key word is private as in private property)
“We are a society and as such we are willing to band together and provide certain services for the benefit of us all”
So we have the typical tired cliches of community and how we are one for all and all for one. The only tired cliche missing is “from each according to their abilities to each according to their needs”.
My father is a quasi-communist, so I have already had all these debates with him. What I tell him as I will now tell you is that it is senseless to come to these forums and both advocate for a stronger government AND to advocate for control over corporations. A stronger government will always and everywhere exert its will against the very people it governs. It may do this through the exertion of influence of the military, corporations or some other special interest, but it always has and always will.
Corporations have too much power today. I give you that. But so do unions and farmers and the elderly and gun owners. All using their money, power and influence to get what they want. All possible by an ever growing, ever power central government. All the more likely by a obscenely massive treasury. Reign in the central government and you reign in the ability of outsiders to influence. Make corporations stand on their two feet…YES! I agree. Just as I agree that farmers and unions and gun owners should all stand on their two feet.
But who will protect us from these monsters, I can hear the cry now.
Well…who the hell is protecting you now???????????
I bet we would have many more things we could agree on if you just drop the tone done a couple of decimals (I guess I could take some of my own medicine).
Alas, perhaps I am asking a lot.
“My father is a quasi-communist, so I have already had all these debates with him.”
Rick,
Your father is probably a middle-of-the-road liberal ad you his rebellious son. All of your quotations, except for Marx have nothing to do with communists. How do I know, well because I have known many communists of all types (yes there are different types) and I have as little use for them as I do for the tea bagger types. In listening to them and in debating them though I know what their beliefs are and there is no one active in American politics that holds beliefs anywhere near that
“Corporations have too much power today. I give you that. But so do unions and farmers and the elderly and gun owners. All using their money, power and influence to get what they want.”
Unions and farmers have little power today. Union membership has dropped drastically since the 70’s. The only farming interests that get heard are the ones from agribusiness. The elderly have the Republican party constantly trying to cut back on the benefits they worked their whole life for. The NRA has power, but that power comes from the arms industry that represents the money behind them, that fuels the fear of the gun owners who make up the membership. Face it, the problems in this country come from the super wealthy and the Corporations they own. They are corrupting the systems and enforcing socialism for the rich and social Darwinism for the rest of the people like yourself I presume.
I wonder what will become of the $$$$ socked away in the pre-funding mandate if the USPS goes under? Is that the money the govt. will pony up to UPS, FedEx or ??? for establishing a new postal program? Is this part of the bigger plan to rid the country of govt. infrastructure in privatize all social functions? Could we see something like Wal-Mail?
Citizen, “It also provides rural post offices with an opportunity to obtain a non-paid advocate should closure studies resume at the end of the one-year moratorium extension.”
What’s the purpose of the non-paid advocate? A powerless person from the community for everyone to complain to? If it were someone with some power, it would a paid crony appointment. But maybe I’ve got it wrong.
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UPS makes my deliveries to my po.
FedEx uses contractors to deliver here. The contract is FedEx written, take it or leave it.
UPS is Teamsters union. FedEx isn’t.
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Parking meters? We don’t have even one in this county, nor in the county where my mother lived.
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I thought capitalism was a profit/loss system. Took me a long time to realize that corporation got the profit and the taxpayer got the loss.