Regarding the editorial on May 10th, it would serve Mr. Hansen well to learn the true facts before writing such a scathing article about the United States Postal Service and the Postmaster General, Patrick Donahue. It is true that the USPS is having some financial difficulties, but not because of the reasons put forth by Mr. Hansen. All criticism should be directed at the one man who is single-handedly trying to put the USPS out of business.
In 2006, Darrell Issa, a Republican Congressman from California, attached an amendment to an unrelated bill that mandates the USPS to set aside $5.5 billion per year for ten years to prefund future retiree benefits. Since the USPS Inspector General says the fund already contains over $326 billion, it is obvious that Issa is on a one-man mission to wreck the USPS. The reality is that without the mandate, the USPS has operated in the black for the past six years.
The motive behind the mandate is not clear, but many insiders have speculated that Issa wants to break the American Postal Workers Union. The real outrageous act here is that the rules of our legislative branch permit one member to create such a burden that affects the majority of all Americans.
Mr. Hansen could have obtained this information in just a few minutes, if he had been so inclined. To learn more, Google “Darrell Issa vs. USPS”. The United States Postal Service and its workers do an excellent job in delivering the mail, and they don’t deserve this treatment.
Sara Dunlap
Brainerd
Comments (8)
Add commentThis is like blaming the little Dutch Boy...
...for the hole in the dike. First, the motive for the funding requirement is clear and it has nothing to do with breaking unions. As of 2009, the USPS had $88 billion in unfunded liabilities for their USPS retirement benefits. That's the amount of dollars that have no money set aside with which to fund the benefits. although $326 billion might sound like a lot of money, it is not enough to cover all the benefits the USPS has already promised. In fact, an extra $5 billion a year probably won't even cover those expenses.
Issa did not create the USPS's unfunded liabilities, he's merely trying to prevent a massive taxpayer funded bailout down the road--something I wish the Democrats would do more often.
Facts and Ideology
Excellent post Sara. You have your facts correct about Darrell Issa and the USPS.
Mr. Hansen is a right-wing editorialist and his opinions are formed from his right-wing sources, which are not always known for being based on facts.
Remember when Sen. Kyl (R-AZ) made a statement on the Senate floor about Planned Parenthood? When he was called out for his misinformation his office said: "It was not intended to be a factual statement."
Just remember, editorial pieces are opinions, not meant to be taken as a "factual statement".
Correcting Mr. Bond....
Dispatch editorials have morphed from opinions to idealogical views, with "facts" chosen on the basis of whether they support such views.
I would further ad that their initial promise that there would be two such views, one left, one right--has yet to be realized! It's all Keith, all the time it seems!
Issa...enough said
His reputation and criminal history make anything he says and his motives suspect.
Google him...
Right...
Let's not talk about the facts that are relevant to this issue of USPS unfunded liabilities. Let's talk about how much we hate Issa. This is why discussing things with Democrats is so tedious. It's all about emotion. Facts are ignored, and because they are, bad decisions are made over and over again.
And I would love to see a pro and con opinion feature, but maybe the Dispatch is trying to make up for the fact that the whole paper has an editorial policy that favors Democratic politics. The same thing is true with the Wall Street Journal. The journalists who write the articles are left-wing and the editorial page is right-wing.
WHAT?
muehlbau writes: "...maybe the Dispatch is trying to make up for the fact that the whole paper has an editorial policy that favors Democratic politics.
Hmmm...have you considered taking a course in remedial reading?
Maybe you need a course in objectivity, Mission...
The Dispatch has historically leaned left. They have quite a history of not covering stories that don't fit the left-wing narrative. They simply haven't done a great job of covering both sides of every issue, but I commend them on their recent attempts to bring more balance. Good job, Dispatch!
in reply to muehbau
Continuing to be amazed at how little people understand the post office, and what has happened and how they buy in false facts. In 2000, 2001 Postal Federal Employee's were made to pay in to their retirement funds , civil service retirement system and fers, federal employee retirement system an extra 15 % under the 1997 budget reconcilation act, this was after taking cuts in pay, health benifits and retirement from 1970 until 1980 worth at least 200 billion, both the President and both sides of congress thanked the postal employees for their sacrifice.This increase for retirement was made due to pay in for the deficit only.
In 2003, Congress was informed of overfunding or overpayment to the retirement accounts( note: congress also uses both retirement systems to retire) and politcal engineering meant that budget increase would appear larger and a white paper was circulated around with this statement so then in 2006 the postal accountibility and enhancement act was passed by voice vote , not even read and put a prefunding mandate which no other federal agency has , for 10 years from 2006-2016, taking 5 billion from postal profits to see aside. The pay as you go system of fers and csrs had worked for over 300 years. And now a 3rd retirement fund was set up to prefund at 100 percent, for the next 75 years, for people not born, or working for the USPS, this was done with the guize of ' caring' for postal employee retirements , who are still paying out of their checks for a pay as you go system. The PAEA also gave bonus's to the top executives of the Postal Service for pmg potter and 12 under him, at the rate he got a 72 thousand dollar raise putting his pay at 400,000 plus benifits, of a retirement of 5.5 million , which he recieved in 2010. Meanwhile Craft employee who do the actual work of the delivering the mails were told they could not get workers replaced due to the fact there was too much overfunding of the retrirement benifits. Go to www.postalmag.com/joygoldberguspsstress.pdf or to the AWPU 3800 first area tricounty local , PA, library online to look up stress in the workplace and read the following to see the impact of the PAEA on workers in the USPS" how the ongoing violation of the USPS guidelines are creating a toxic work environment.' Then go to www.billburrasjournal.org-misc, (need to do search to find with the words bill burras journal -misc ) go to elevator page under misc and scroll down and read, phoney excuses for diverting usps revenues. Continue on in search for the following by bob sloan, posted this year in april online : ALEC/KOCH The Privitization Of The USPS for Ups and FedEx, read that. Then go to examiner.com and read artical by Tim McCown, Privitization of the USPS, behind all the schemes and lies of privitization of the USPS. Issa and Ross came on in 2007, after the prefunding mandate, they are on the oversight commitee, and at first denied the csrs overpayments, which can be found online at search by putting in ' postal comments to the federal trade commision, august 6, 2007. ' For over ten years lobbying was done by Alec to destroy the USPS, due to vested interest of wanting more of the pie so to speak. Your statement of 326 billion not being enough for retirement along with the 2 retirement systems which are included in that , for funding for retirement benifits, seems to be further far fetched and without any logical thinking process of how this situation came about politically, Go to google.books and look up the Free book to read, ' The Post office, it past record, it's present condition, and its potential relation to the new world era, Daniel Calhoun Roper,chairperson of the tarriff commision and first assistant post master general , 1913-1917. The postal service was formed on commitee by Sam Adams and Benjamine Franklin to have communication for the revolutionary war, it predates the forming of the country and the consitiution, congress has been given the responsiblity to build post offices and postal roads, if Issa and Ross had been on that commitee , then we would of lost the war and been under british rule. The contrast is stark in 2012. When the orders come for non replacement for craft members ( and potter was replaced immediately not like postal letter carriers or clerks) due to overfunding and more set aside then any other private company or federal agency has to do, then a non replacement of workers happens , how much money is it worth set aside to have them die so that the retirement money that they have earned goes back in to the system if they dont retire , and get worked to death?Issa refers to postal craft employee's as soft assets . Neither Ross or Issa has ever worked for the postal service , done craft work or carried the mails, yet they are in charge of the largest employee group in federal agencies, , and the attack on union employee's of the USPS to bust the largest union in the USA continues today.