pstans
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Sun Jan-08-06 01:03 PM
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Price of stamps goes up... |
niallmac
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Sun Jan-08-06 01:10 PM
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1. Amidst my angst over war, world misery and Ohio has been the price |
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Edited on Sun Jan-08-06 01:10 PM by niallmac
of stamps. I think the law is written so stamp prices cannot be increased less frequently in 5 cent increments. Seems like a strange way to run an antequated catalogue schlepping railroad to me.
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Nutmegger
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Sun Jan-08-06 01:20 PM
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2. Does anybody know what the increase is for??? |
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Edited on Sun Jan-08-06 01:21 PM by Nutmegger
Some RW freep-ball who works with my mother said that it was to purchase anthrax scanning equipment because recently the "terrorists" have been caught using the mail to send anthrax. I asked when and didn't get an answer...
I would believe it has something to do with pensions?:shrug:
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Igel
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Sun Jan-08-06 01:52 PM
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Specifically those of ex-military employees. They apparently get folded into the Civil Service retirement program when ex-military work for the USPS, and their military service counts for retirement under that program, IIRC.
This means that ex-military retire earlier than expected or get higher pensions/benefits when they retire. Money has to be set aside to cover it. Something like $27 billion over some number of years (maybe that's the total unfunded liability, it's not something I've spent more than 5 minutes looking at, a few weeks ago). USPS says they shouldn't be on the hook for that, that it should be picked up by Somebody Else or be a general Treasury obligation--i.e., get paid by the taxpayers, but not by the USPS budget. Others say otherwise: if you're in the Civil Service pension fund you're in the Civil Service pension fund and get to abide by the same rules everybody else does. The opinion of the Others stuck, whether that was Congress or the executive branch.
Strictly speaking, anything that takes any money out of the USPS budget--electricity costs, gasoline, anthrax-detection equipment--contributes to the shortfall that the postage hike is intended to cover. Money's fungible. I suspect the pensions are blamed because that's where USPS thought it could win, it's a new obligatoration only recently pointed out (or imposed, depending on POV), and it's a large amount of dough.
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Nutmegger
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Sun Jan-08-06 02:09 PM
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The stupid freepers must enjoy living in fear!
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DU
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Tue May 07th 2024, 09:12 AM
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