The Future Of The U.S. Postal Service
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-08-01/future-us-postal-service
The U.S. Postal Service owes the Treasury Department $5.5 billion. The bill is due today, but the postal agency cannot make the payment. Nothing will happen in the near term: Post offices will not shut down overnight, and people will still be able to send letters and packages through the mail. But the default underscores not only the financial woes plaguing the nation's mail system but also dysfunction in a partisan Congress, which controls the Postal Service. Some say privatizing the mail agency is the only way to stanch the flow of red ink. Others blame Congress' requirement to pre-fund postal retirees' health benefits. The future of the U.S. Postal Service.
Guests
Fredric Rolando
president of the National Association of Letter Carriers.
Lisa Rein
national reporter for The Washington Post, covering the federal workforce.
Tad Dehaven
budget analyst for The Cato Institute.
Comments
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Why is the USPS in trouble?
Up to now, and as a result the Postal Reorganization Act of 1976, the USPS has been run largely as a business, an independent agency of the rest of the federal government. The USPS does not operate on taxpayer dollars; indeed, the USPS hasn't used a dime of taxpayer money in 30 years, as all its revenue is earned from the sale of its products and services.
The one problem is that the USPS is not independent of the US Congress.
On December 8, 2006, the last day of the lame duck Session, the Congress concluded its legislative business with ‘unanimous consent’ adoption of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA - HR 6407) without any debate or roll call vote. Included in the act was a provision that postal service retirement benefits be pre-paid, out to 75 years in the future.
The Act requires that a $5.8 billion check be written each Sept. 30th to the U.S. Treasury for the next ten years to be deposited into a prepaid health fund for future retirees 75 years in advance. That is, the USPS has to pay retirement benefits for employees who have not yet been born!
No other Federal agency or private organization has such a requirement, and without this onerous obligation, the USPS would have been a profit-making agency for the last three years.
Thanks, lidavis, I'm with you!!
The last time Diane broached this subject-
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-05-11/friday-news-roundup-domestic
The panel kicked it around a little and would have ignored the real problem completely if a Union Rep hadn't called in and tried to explain it.
The Law is a disgrace and no more than a thinly veiled attempt to destroy the Postal Service so the Queens of the Bunglers can privatize it.
And for some mysterious reason NPR consistently reports the debt and need to close Post Offices without mentioning the real problem.
For Pete's Sake, Diane, don't let the Cato Psychopaths sow any more of their despicable lies! Thanks for bringing it up again.
Monte Haun mchaun@hotmail.com
Instead of trying to make the post office into something that it's not, a government business success story. Lets face the facts and take a look at your mail box and the amount letters and other mail you receive or should I say don't receive. Most days of the week I get one or two mailings mostly junk some days nothing. The revenue is just not there for the post office to pretend that time has not past it by. A serious downsizing and a curtailing of mail delivery days has to happen. To the lovers of big inefficient government, government welfare in the form of unneeded employees on the public dole is worth having, bigger national debts and deficits are the outcome, too bad in the real world that can't last.
Thanks Lidavis and Mchaun reminding us again of the elephant in the room, funding the retirement for yet to be born workers. (Is this right to life brought to it's totally absurd end?)
We'll see if this major factor in the demise of the post office even gets mentioned. IMHO the failure of the post office is just one more piece of evidence of the corrupt decline of the American empire. Banksters robbing the common man blind, at the same time we can no longer deliver the mail. What a sad and embarrassing state of affairs.
We could privatize it. I'm sure that's the goal of the Elitists. Postage would become outrageous, of course. Most likely our mail will end up in the hands of either UPS or FedEx or some other entity. Most of the employess of said entity will be paid slightly more than minimum wage. Maybe Bain Capital would like to have a shot at it.
Of course, there might be a way to tax e-mails.
That last e-mail ought to get a rise out of someone. LOL
The United States Post office is the BEST delivery company on the planet. A first class stamp costs less than a candy bar.These facts make destroying this government agency a must by the radical T-Party,who sell the notion of,your government is bad and must destroyed.
Look at our military. Outsourced to private contractors the cost to taxpayers has nearly tripled.T-Party small government costs taxpayers and consumers MORE,not LESS !!!!
In the 1990s it seemed to me that email should have a tax of a mil or less to assist funding the Postal Service. Taxes were added to phone bills to fund the internet for education.
It seemed to me that the ISPs would clamp down on spam if they were paying for it. The spammers would be quickly shut-down or their IP address blocked if its nuisance cost money.
The same holds true to maintaining security of one's own computer to avoid becoming an unwitting enabler of spammers.
The monies lost by online fraud and spam disruption have cost us a great deal of money since.
Yes, we should raise taxes and resurrect the horse carriage business, the whale oil business, home delivery of dairy products, home delivery of ice, home delivery of coal etc. etc.
The Nation's John Nichols asserts that the USPS' accelerating losses and looming insolvency is the fault of Congress for mandating a kind of trust fund for retiring USPS workers. The USPS has one of the most comprehensive and lavish health retirement plans offered by any government or pseudo-government agency while also boasting an older workforce facing huge swathes of imminent retirements. Their fiscal problems stem from the fact that, with declining relevancy for physical communications and mail delivery, the USPS has no way to pay off the benefits promised to workers ready to retire.
The 2006 requirement from Congress for the USPS to establish a trust fund for retiring workers is an attempt to make the financial hit that the USPS is going to take slightly more managable. What the Lieberman bill attempts - and what Darrell Issa's bill takes further in the House - is to reform the way the Post Office works so that they'll have the money to pay off health care retirement benefits both now and later.
Unions have been pushing the myth that they shouldn't have to pay anything now - which just sets up a fiscal apocalypse for the organization further down the road.
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/kevinglass/2012/04/18/post_office_insolvenc...
There was a time when we anxiously waited for the mailman to deliver the mail. That was because we anticipated letters from loved ones and friends and the mail and post office had value.
Now, all we receive is junk mail that goes into the trash and we consider the post office of zero value.
The post office can change this if they lower the price to $.01 or free for personal letters and raise the cost of advertising and junk mail. Bring that anticipation and value back.
Diane:
One of the items that’s never mentioned about many of the agencies, employees, and laws under attack now is the correlation between the shift in demographics in this country to people of color and this new move towards “personal responsibility” and “cost cutting,” I am writing a major essay called “HUSHed : Keep ‘em Humble, Uneducated, Sick and Hungry.” Many of the job attacks are government jobs where you find a majority of people of color, especially African Americans, -- the “good govt job”. These attacks are in education (Pell grants, tuition, etc.); healthcare (the ACA) and nutrition (Food Stamps). If you keeped them HUSHed, you control an entire population, even as they increase in numbers.
Kate
partisan,
Please refer to your Constitution. The Postal Service is required by that same document, see Article I, Section 8, Clause 7. To my knowledge, the horse carriage business, the whale oil business, etc. are not mentioned.
Thanks lidavis, for pointing out how congress seems to be trying to destroy USPS. I am a small business owner and I ship my handmade pottery to customers. USPS is the only affordable option and they have been absolutely great. If I had to ship by UPS or Fedex, I would lose a lot of business due to the much higher shipping costs. I will never be able to negotiate a cheaper rate from the private carriers, I don't have the volume. One more example where conservatives are trying to destroy institutions that serve all (like government), and leave only big business that serves the wealthy and itself.
What? "...work so hard to earn..."? Go into a USPS facility and watch how "hard" they work. Then, go to a FedEx facility and watch how HARD they work. Close the USPS for good!
This is a free market. Individuals can choose to a job in the private sector, which generally pays more salary, or they can choose a job in the public sector, that pays less but has (the possibility) of a pension. That is the trade off.
So, you want the taxpayers to continue to subsidize your business? There, in lies the problem: The USPS does not charge enough for its service.
If there is a union the GOP will attempt to destroy it, period.
Making the Postal Service a private business is not the answer. You put at risk losing a reliable delivery service that everyone can count on. Private businesses can go out of business, then what do people do? Especially lower income individuals and older adults who are less likely to have the skills to shop and purchase new service. It is not as easy as the Cato Institute representative makes it sound.
I live in a state (Texas) with the largest deregulated electrical industry and we pay the highest rates with the most confusion over so called "choice."
The Post Office should continue to utilize online access. I use Stamps.com to print stamps and mail packages from home. The addition of flat rate boxes and the ability to buy postage online has been great for me at work.
Let's just be honest about it -- the Republicans put the pre-funding requirement in place, when they completely controlled the Government, in order to destroy the postal union, just as they have attacked unions everywhere else they exist. That is the driving reason for destroying the Postal Service -- everything else is a side show.
Why can't we have postal service every other day, at least for residential customers? Either a MWF or a TThS schedule. What is in my mail that is urgent today? LOL As I was typing this, one of your guests mentioned 3 times a week.
Mike Sergeant wrote:"Please refer to your Constitution. The Postal Service is required by that same document, see Article I, Section 8, Clause 7. To my knowledge, the horse carriage business, the whale oil business, etc. are not mentioned"
Give that boy a gold star. You can hear how relevant this point is to the discussion, not mentioned!
Fredric Rolando keeps referring to some account with $40+ billion in it.
What bank or financial institution is that account kept at?
I doubt there is even an account. The account is another internal IOU that will crush the financial dreams of Gen Xers and Yers.
I wonder how much of the food Tad Dehaven eats every day came from the city where he lives. His disrespect for rural Americans might be modified if his belly wasn't full.
Amazing how Diane let Fredric Rolando deftly dodge her privatization question with a blizzard of words touting the good the USPS does. C'mon Diane you're usually tougher than that with artful dodging guests.
Full disclosure I'm a fan of Ben Franklin's nation knitting invention, am the son of late retired postal carrier and wish the USPS well. However, the USPS and it's in denial union needs to evolve with the times.
For years I listened to my father complain about how the USPS was letting UPS eat its lunch by running its parcel post as a dumping ground for inefficient cronies.
And, the Cato dude is right on one thing. Congress is an albatross around the neck of the USPS.
Does Tad understand that growing crops and livestock requires wide areas? One cannot have an apartment building full of cattle in New York or plant backyards in Northern Virginia with soybeans and expect to feed this country. Most of the people living in rural areas are not there to run their IT or lobbying businesses. They are there to raise the food at the cheap prices that Tad enjoys in Washington.
Linc:
The Post Office uses no tax dollars. In fact, they are subsidizing Congress by pre paying the retiree health benefits. That is the reason they are loosing money.
The USPS is one of the most frustrating organizations I deal with. I can't believe your guest brags about the workforce proficiency when their motto has been why use one person when four is better. My local satellite PO now has 6 people working FULL-TIME when just 4 yrs ago it was 1.5!!!!
I VOTE to completely abolish the USPS and try and recover benefits paid to these underworked overpaid people for violating the public trust.
I don't understand the person who said he gets only one or two pieces of mail per day. My mailbox is stacked. Some of it is unwanted, but there are definitely several pieces of legitimate mail.
The whole plan from the Republicans is to bankrupt the US Postal Service so they can bring in a private company to do the work. No doubt this would be a company that gives them lots of money. Privatization puts control in the hands of greedy CEOs who will greatly increase prices and decrease service and tell the consumer "tough luck."
The cost of internet connection and computers are prohibitive for the elderly and the poor. I have a low cost phone and can not wait to talk to someone about a bill without using all my minutes. I don't pay over the computer as I don't trust it. I can not read and concentrate on the computer. I have an old brain. Even if you subsidized computer hook ups and computers, you would end up spending more to help people like myself. I am listening to you on the radio, not on the computer. So the elderly would end up being abused by collection phone calls using all our minutes. It is a good way to get rid of us.
Rather than privatizing, rather than considering getting rid of rural delivery, why doesn't the USPS consider rates based on a zoned system? Even for 1st class letters, this could work out well. Local mail could be zone 1. Multiple zones would be established based on distance from the sender. Rural routes could be funded by adding 1 zone level to the cost.
Much mail is local - this would not be affected, so local birthday cards, etc. would still be shipped. In addition to the regular postage stamps, a zone stamp would be used to pay for delivery.