House panel backs six-day mail delivery

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill

By Bernie Becker - 06/25/14 07:18 PM EDT

The House Appropriations Committee restored a spending bill provision that requires the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service to deliver the mail six days a week.

USPS and top Republicans working on postal reform, like House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), have said that rolling back Saturday delivery would save the agency around $2 billion a year.

But Wednesday’s vote in House Appropriations underscores how deep the support for six-day delivery is among lawmakers, including Republicans representing rural areas.

Reps. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) and Tom Latham (R-Iowa) proposed the amendment, which was approved by voice vote. Congressional spending bills have for years required that the Postal Service deliver the mail at the same levels it did in 1983. A House Appropriations subcommittee had earlier approved a spending measure that removed the provision.

-snip-

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/finance/210624-house-panel-backs-six-day-mail-delivery

[LittleGirl]

1. And no where in that article

does it state why the Postal Service is cash strapped in the first place.
Because they have to prefund retirees that haven't even been born yet.

I wished that the journalists out there would do their job.

[YOHABLO]

2. you are absolutely right.

[Triana]

3. BINGO. Isn't it intereSTINK how they always leave that part out? n/t

[davidpdx]

5. Exactly

[Travis_0004]

7. the post office is not paying for employees not yet born

“Contrary to some claims, there is no [retiree health benefits] liability held, nor contributions made for any future employees who have yet to be hired or yet to be born.”

http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/650511.pdf

[Psephos]

12. Thank you for replacing heat with light. n/t

[Dustlawyer]

9. The "Journalists" are doing the job they have been paid to do. Fed X and UPS paid good money for

them to report the story this way.

[Psephos]

11. It's you who hasn't done your job.

I'm being blunt, but not trying to be rude. I strongly believe that on a progressive forum, we have a responsibility to not say things are simply not true.

Read just the first page of the US Government GAO report on the situation, as posted by Travis in reply #7.

Here are just the first two paragraphs from it.

What GAO Found

The Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund (PSRHBF) covered about 49
percent of the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) $94 billion retiree health benefit
liability at fiscal year-end 2012. USPS’s deteriorating financial outlook, however,
will make it difficult to continue the current prefunding schedule in the short term,
and possibly to fully fund the remaining $48 billion unfunded liability over the
remaining 44 years of the schedule on which the 2006 Postal Accountability and
Enhancement Act (PAEA) was based. The liability covers the projected benefits
for about 471,000 current postal retirees and a portion of the projected benefits
for about 528,000 current employees; it does not cover employees not yet hired.
Under PAEA, USPS is responsible for contributing an additional $33.9 billion to
the PSRHBF by fiscal year 2017, including the $11.1 billion USPS has defaulted
on over the past 2 years. PAEA also requires the Office of Personnel
Management (OPM) to calculate the remaining unfunded liability in 2017 and
develop an initial 40-year amortization payment schedule. USPS, however,
projects further declines in mail volume and revenues that may continue to limit
its ability to prefund the remaining retiree health benefit liability.

GAO’s analysis of maintaining current law requirements compared to five
alternative approaches showed differing impacts on USPS’s future annual
payments and unfunded liabilities. For example, three of the approaches—1) the
Administration’sApproach, 2) Senate Bill (S. 1789) and 3) “Pay-as-You-Go” (no
prefunding)—would reduce USPS’s annual payments in the short term, thereby
easing its immediate cash flow problems and financial losses. However, these
approaches would increase USPS’s unfunded liability, sometimes substantially,
and require larger payments later. Deferring funding could increase costs for
future ratepayers and increase the possibility that USPS may not be able to pay
for some or all of its liability. Conversely,a fourth approach—the House Bill (H.R.
2309)—and the current law requirement would reduce USPS’s unfunded
liabilities more aggressively but may result in significantly higher USPS financial
losses in the near future. If USPS stopped prefunding and let the existing fund
grow with interest, the unfunded liability is projected to significantly increase.
Under a fifth approach, if USPS stopped prefunding and used the existing fund to
pay current and future premiums, the fund is projected to be exhausted by 2026.
Private sector, state, local, and other federal entities are not required to prefund
these benefits, though some do so to a limited extent, and most are required to
recognize the future costs in their financial reporting.

And recall that the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act was passed with major support from Democrats.

[freshwest]

4. They're still planning to contract out the service just like they will do with SS. We're done.

[Samantha]

8. I think you are correct - Congress wants to get its hands on the 60 billion

the Post Office has on ice to prepay employees' benefits.

Sam

[freshwest]

10. It's in the David Koch Libertarian platform since 1980. Sanders put the whole thing online.

Last edited Wed Nov 11, 2015, 09:45 PM - Edit history (5)

They have gotten just about every thing they have on their list, playing the CT, Tea, GOP and the public who don't understand what the world the Koch brothers are forcing on us to accept this.

BERNIE SANDERS Uncovers 1980 Koch Agenda- "What Do the Koch Brothers Want?"

What else do the Koch brothers want?

In 1980, David Koch ran as the Libertarian Party's vice-presidential candidate in 1980.

Let's take a look at the 1980 Libertarian Party platform.

Here are just a few excerpts of the Libertarian Party platform that David Koch ran on in 1980:

We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws, and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission.

We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs.

We oppose any compulsory insurance or tax-supported plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services.

We also favor the deregulation of the medical insurance industry.

We favor the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system. Pending that repeal, participation in Social Security should be made voluntary.

We propose the abolition of the governmental Postal Service. The present system, in addition to being inefficient, encourages governmental surveillance of private correspondence. Pending abolition, we call for an end to the monopoly system and for allowing free competition in all aspects of postal service.

We oppose all personal and corporate income taxation, including capital gains taxes.
We support the eventual repeal of all taxation.

As an interim measure, all criminal and civil sanctions against tax evasion should be terminated immediately.

We support repeal of all law which impede the ability of any person to find employment, such as minimum wage laws.

We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.

We condemn compulsory education laws and we call for the immediate repeal of such laws.

We support the repeal of all taxes on the income or property of private schools, whether profit or non-profit.

We support the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency.

We support abolition of the Department of Energy.

We call for the dissolution of all government agencies concerned with transportation, including the Department of Transportation.

We demand the return of America's railroad system to private ownership. We call for the privatization of the public roads and national highway system.

We specifically oppose laws requiring an individual to buy or use so-called "self-protection" equipment such as safety belts, air bags, or crash helmets.

We advocate the abolition of the Federal Aviation Administration.

We advocate the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration.

We support an end to all subsidies for child-bearing built into our present laws, including all welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children.

We oppose all government welfare, relief projects, and aid to the poorprograms. All these government programs are privacy-invading, paternalistic, demeaning, and inefficient. The proper source of help for such persons is the voluntary efforts of private groups and individuals.

We call for the privatization of the inland waterways, and of the distribution system that brings water to industry, agriculture and households.

We call for the repeal of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

We call for the abolition of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

We support the repeal of all state usury laws.

In other words, the agenda of the Koch brothers is not only to defund Obamacare. The agenda of the Koch brothers is to repeal every major piece of legislation that has been signed into law over the past 80 years that has protected the middle class, the elderly, the children, the sick, and the most vulnerable in this country...

Tomorrow it will be Social Security, ending Medicare as we know it, repealing the minimum wage. It seems to me that the Koch brothers will not be content until they get everything they believe they are entitled to.

Our great nation can no longer be hijacked by right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers.

For the sake of our children and our grandchildren, for the sake of our economy, we have got to let democracy prevail.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024806298

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/koch-brothers

http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a7980koch

to kpete:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024806298

We've heard these memes for years, Americans have come to believe this is how it has to be.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

13. Good stuff. Saving for reference.

[freshwest]

14. Glad to hear that.

[Samantha]

15. Yes, that is where I got the information - from Bernie

You should put this info in a separate thread. I was familiar with much of what David Koch ran on decades ago, I heard Sanders reviewing it. It would be a good thing if everyone had the chance to review this info, and thanks for posting it.

Sam

[sakabatou]

6. Again, they won't really fix the problem