[lubbockjoe]

I am writing to urge you to oppose H.R. 2309, the Postal Reform Act of 2011, introduced in the House by Rep. Darrell Issa. Recently, much has been said about the dire financial situation facing the Postal Service. Rather than addressing the underlying problems, however, H.R. 2309 would devastate service and destroy postal jobs.

If enacted into law, H.R. 2309 would mandate closing enough post offices and sorting facilities to wring $2 billion dollars in savings from the mail system over the next two years. Service to small towns and to rural postal customers would be devastated.

H.R. 2309 also would also establish a “Solvency Authority” with the power to unilaterally cut wages and benefits.

Unfortunately, H.R. 2309 would do nothing to correct the cause of the Postal Service’s economic difficulties: It would do nothing about the billions of dollars in USPS overpayments to its pension accounts, and it would do nothing to correct the congressional mandate that requires the USPS to pre-fund the healthcare benefits of future retirees. (No other government agency or private company bears this burden, which costs the Postal Service more than $5 billion annually.)

If passed, H.R. 2309 would lead to the end of the Postal Service as we know it, and it would have a devastating impact on the American economy. I urge you to oppose H.R. 2309.

I hope you will support legislation such as H.R. 1351, which would allow the USPS to use the billions of dollars in pension overpayments to meet its financial obligations. H.R. 1351 would address the cause of the USPS financial crisis without slashing service or hurting workers.

[Rei Murasame]

Good find, and let me add: Darrell Issa is a well-known sleaze-bag who the underworld is well acquainted with. It's surprising that he can even table a bill at all without someone suspecting that it's nonsense or corruption.

At this point the Americans shouldn't even have to ask what the content of the bill is, if Issa introduced it, it is 99% likely some kind of scam.

[lubbockjoe]

The word on Capitol Hill is that Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, won’t allow Rep. Lynch’s bill to come up for a vote! We must demand that Rep. Issa stop blocking H.R. 1351.

[Rei Murasame]

Oh, well that was fast.

I wonder who will win?

[lubbockjoe]

Darrell Issa is a well-known sleaze-bag

“Hi! My name’s Darrell! I’m from Congress, and I’m here to help!”

Darrell Issa, the multimillionaire career politician, self-appointed “watchdog” and latter day tea party convert, recently used taxpayer dollars to create a web site called “savingthepostalservice.com”. Darrell’s idea of “saving” the USPS is to force the agency into bankruptcy, eliminate collective bargaining, and switch to a part time work force with low wages and no benefits. Darrell’s site doesn’t mention the Congressional mandates that are the real reason for the USPS’s current financial problems, so we’ve decided to provide that information here as a public service. Like the USPS, and unlike Darrell, we receive no taxpayer funds.

First, some quick facts that you won’t find on Darrell’s web site:
--The USPS is facing a dramatic drop in volume due to competition from electronic diversion and the effects of the recession.

--Despite that, the USPS has, by downsizing its workforce and infrastructure, and negotiating concessions from its unions, managed to match its expenses to its revenues- breaking even, just like it was designed to do.

--The ONLY reason the USPS is near bankruptcy is the skimming of over $5 billion a year in “trust fund payments” enacted by Congress and the Bush Administration in the 2006 PAEA law.

--Without PAEA, the USPS would still face a challenging future, but it would be facing it with ZERO debt, and a $15 billion credit line.

--Congress refuses to modify the trust fund requirement for one very simple, and very cynical reason: the “trust fund” is “on budget”, while the USPS is not. The trust funds don’t do anything to “guarantee” future retiree health benefits- they serve only to transfer some of the federal deficit to the USPS, artificially lowering the government’s accumulated debt.

--The USPS’s immediate problem isn’t the Internet or the unions- it’s the age old problem of politicians with their hands in the till.

[TropicalK]

Paying for future benefits of current employees is a real cost. It cannot be said that you are on budget if there is a carry-over liability into the future.

[Lightman]

I'm not saying I support the bill, but a gradual reduction in the size and scope of the postal service would be a good thing as snail mail becomes increasingly obsolete.

[lubbockjoe]

Paying for future benefits of current employees is a real cost. It cannot be said that you are on budget if there is a carry-over liability into the future.

This might help clarify:

In January, the USPS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a stunning announcement: The Postal Service has been overcharged $75 billion in contributions to the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) pension fund. While this mistake, if corrected, would more than offset the Postal Service’s deficit from Fiscal Year 2009 and expected shortfalls in FY 2010 and 2011, returning the overpayment to the USPS is not a simple feat.

In January, Congress adopted H.J. Resolution 45, which re-established “paygo” rules. According to the paygo rules, for every disbursement from the Treasury there must be a corresponding way to pay for it. The purpose of this legislation is to establish “budget neutrality” in order to manage the growing deficit.

Correcting the $75 billion overpayment is hampered by these Congressional “scoring” procedures, which calculate the budgetary impact of proposed legislation. Although the Postal Service is not part of the federal budget, it is part of the “unified budget,” so the rules demand “offsets” when any changes are made to USPS payment schedules.

To further complicate the issue, under a provision of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA), the USPS is required to pay more than $5 billion each year until 2016 to pre-fund retiree healthcare benefits. There is more than enough money in the $75 billion pool to wipe out the pre-funding obligation and still have plenty left over — but the paygo rules make such a trade-off problematic.

http://www.apwu.org/dept/legis/legmagart050110.htm

Darrell Issa, the multimillionaire career politician, self-appointed “watchdog” and latter day tea party convert, recently used taxpayer dollars to create a web site called “savingthepostalservice.com”. Darrell’s idea of “saving” the USPS is to force the agency into bankruptcy, eliminate collective bargaining, and switch to a part time work force with low wages and no benefits. Darrell’s site doesn’t mention the Congressional mandates that are the real reason for the USPS’s current financial problems...

It seems the broader issue is to kill the last strong-hold of unionism: public sector workers. Issa's ultimate dream is a US labor force of "a part time work force with low wages and no benefits."


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