What Needs To Be Done In Congress To Help Turn Around The USPS's Problems?.....

[global1]

What do I call my Congressman & Senators about and ask them to support. Has anyone in Congress sponsored a bill to help this situation? If so - what's it's number?

[dkf]

1. Apparently getting rid of wall street will fix this.

[FSogol]

2. Stop treating USPS like a business & treat them like what they are - a government service

Does the Pentagon have to pay their own way? Does the Forestry Service? No. Why should the Post Office? They are a service. If they can pay 75% of their way, great. The notion that they have to compete which businesses yet are not allowed to raise rates (on our ridiculously low postage) is total nonsense. Raise the postage rate to 75 cents. Put a 33% increase in junk and bulk mail rates phased in over 3 years, and only require then to have to raise 75% of their funding. Problem solved.

[KharmaTrain]

3. Elect More Democrats...

As long as there's 60 or so teabaggers who have hijacked Boner and the House any relief to the working class is the last thing they want to do. They want to bust unions and "privitize" the government. So if you want to save the USPS, you're gonna need to minimize the affect these shitstains have on the political process...and that means working hard for Democrats to hold the Senate and retake the House next year.

[court jester]

7. Here are the details of the original 2006 bill...Democrat Waxman co sponsored it so there's that

Cosponsors:

Danny Davis (D-IL7)
John McHugh (R-NY23)
Henry Waxman (D-CA30)

Status: Introduced Dec 7, 2006

Passed House Dec 8, 2006
Passed Senate Dec 9, 2006
Signed by President Dec 20, 2006

*****(2 days after it was introduced it was passed by both senate and house-- That is Fast!)***

Last Action: Dec 20, 2006: Became Public Law No: 109-435.

Other Titles: -- Postal Civil Service Retirement and Health Benefits Funding Amendments of 2006
***
Votes: Dec 8, 2006: This bill passed in the House of Representatives by voice vote. A record of each representative’s position was not kept.
Dec 9, 2006: This bill passed in the Senate by Unanimous Consent. A record of each senator’s position was not kept.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-6407

[KharmaTrain]

9. Note Of Interest...

On the date the bill was submitted and passed in the House the rushpublicans were still in control...the waning days of the ill-fated Hastert era. This followed their big loss in the '06 election and this bill was rushed through before the Democrats could take control. That doesn't absolve Waxman for pushing the bill forward or Democracts from not looking into the USPS situation when they had majorities that would have prevented what we're seeing now. That said, any chance for the USPS will hinge on who wins control of the House next year.

[pipoman]

4. Dismantle the internets..

[mmonk]

5. Read this and you will know. I included Bills that would keep it going.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/mmonk/113

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. the Postal Service has overpaid into the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) by as much as $75 bi

This week Nader wrote a letter to Senator Joseph Lieberman, 
Chairman of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Congressman Darrell Issa, Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The letter explains how the “crisis” we’re hearing so much about has been totally manufactured and could be easily corrected by Congressional action. Readers of “Save the Post Office” are familiar with the story, but Nader’s letter does a very good job going over the numbers and explaining the details about how postal workers have overpaid billions of dollars into pension plans and their retiree health care plan.

Nader explains how the Postal Service has overpaid into the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) by as much as $75 billion, as well as overpaying into the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) by about $6.8 billion (as of FY 2009). Combined, these overpayments amount to about $82 billion. If a significant portion of these overpayments were returned to the Postal Service, the crisis would vanish in a flash.

In addition, the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) is causing most of the current “crisis” by requiring employees to pay over $5 billion each year into a fund that will pay for future health benefits of retirees of the next 75 years. “This is something that no other government or private corporation is required to do and is an incredibly unreasonable burden,” writes Nader.

If the Postal Service had not been required to prepay over $20 billion for health care benefits of future retirees during 2007 to 2010, the Postal Service would actually be in the black by $1.5 billion as of June 2011. Even with the $10 billion deficit being projected for FY 2011, the USPS would be in the black by $2.5 billion by the end of the fiscal year.

http://www.savethepostoffice.com/preserving-peoples-post-office-nader-writes-congress

[ThomWV]

8. The Congress is forcing the USPS into bankrupcy with its retirement fund requirements

The post office has to, in essence, put money into the retirement fund sufficient to cover every employee they have for life plus every employee they ever expect to have. No other Agency is forced to do this. And the reason you might ask? Its because the Post Office has a giant Union and they are trying to bust it.