Leave the U.S. Postal Service alone
This is in response to a letter dated Aug 15 and titled “Shut down USPS” and wondered that with a $2B loss in one quarter and nothing is being done. There is a reason for this loss.
In 2006, an absurd law (PAEA) was passed ordering the USPS to set aside $5B annually for 90 years for employees’ retirement fund. Due to this eight-year-old law, the Postal Service is in dire straits. I sent a letter to the editor concerning the USPS and asked four questions.
• Why was this law instituted?
• Were there any other government agencies required to do the same and if not, why not?
• With the service floundering, wouldn’t it be prudent to rescind this law and keep the service viable as well as benefiting many others?
• If the law is not rescinded and the Post Office shuts down, where will the excess funds go and why?
I received a response from only one congressperson. The rhetoric, however, did not address any of the questions presented especially why this law was enacted.
The repeal of this law would take less time and money and bring the Postal Service back to viability. Why isn’t this being done? The postal workers do their jobs very well every day. With a 12 percent approval rating, it is unfortunate that Congress can’t say the same.
Anne Hawkins
Cloister Drive
Murfreesboro
Union and NAME of Local/Branch
CNYAL APWU
It doesn’t surprise me in the least that Congress refuses to answer these questions.
Returning the overpaid funds from FERS and CSRS would make the budget deficit look worse than it already is. The chairperson of the committee in charge of Postal Affairs is a crook (look up Rep. Issa’s fine track record) who should be anywhere other than in Congress, and he refuses to bring any bill to the table that doesn’t fit his agenda. He acts more like a dictator than a member of a representative Congressional body. I have a distinct feeling that any Congressional Representative from the Republican side of the aisle who openly disagrees with the “leadership” of the House would find a quick exit as his funding/backing from the NRC would disappear.
It’s amusing in a dark way that the writer mentions the 12% Congressional approval rating. What she fails to mention is the root of the problem. Despite a 12% approval rating, we keep sending the same fools back to DC. The incumbency rate is over 90% in almost every election. Until we send the lot of them home, nothing is going to change.
Union and NAME of Local/Branch
NALC branch 1902
Office held, if any
Current disqualified candidate for director of safety and health
In the last 15 years, there had been a covert plan to, “thin the herd”, called the Califano report. Reason I feel other options are not being taken to help our company, is because, those in charge, are idle. It’s easier to fire employees replacing them with poverty paid carriers then to think of how to move us into the modern age.