US Postal Service fighting back!

[The Backlash Cometh]

Just saw a commercial on MSNBC Hardball. If it's true, the U.S. Postal service is getting a raw deal.

The ad claims that the USPostal service takes on a burden no other agency or other company bears. There was a 2006 law that drains 5 billion dollars of postal service revenues. While the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts.

It ends stating that Congress created the problem and Congress can fix it.

[msongs]

1. and they can riase the rates on all that unwanted trash they put in my mailbox nt

[timtom]

16. Jeez! What a great idea!

In fact, since the internet is so pervasive, why doesn't USPS no longer deliver mass advertising? Let the advertisers create jobs by delivering that crap themselves.

(Actually, I just realized that that might be a considerable source of income for USPS).

[DrunkenBoat]

17. The reason they have to put it there is Congress. Don't blame the PO.

[madokie]

18. I help all I can by putting refused return to sender

on all that junk mail that I get that has a return address on it. When you do that the ones who sent it in the first place has to pay postage on whatever it is to be returned to them and its not at the negotiated price they pay for postage that got it to your mail box. They pay the same rate as you or I would if we were originating the mailing ourselves. Needless to say you don't get very much more junk mail from whoever it is once they see you don't want their crap and they're having to pay to get it returned to them. About every year or two I have to take a month or so and write *refused return to sender* on each piece of junk mail we receive.
Try it it works, been doing it for years. Ever since I called the post office and inquired about that and was told what I'm saying here.
I was a postal clerk while in the Navy and that is when I first learned that the returned mail has to have the postage paid when its returned.

[Occulus]

21. That's only true if they buy return service or address service with their permit

Otherwise, it goes to recycling.

And yes, those services do cost more than the first-class rate.

[tammywammy]

24. Congress can raise rates. The problem with the USPS is Congress. n/t

[Scruffy1]

35. Only the Postal Regulatory Commission can raise rates.

Amazing how much posting goes on without any basic knowledge. All these complainers about advertising mail must live in a damn near perfect world if all they have to complain about is having to handle a few pieces of advertising. Direct mail is effective enough that someone else would deliver it if they didn't. It takes me about 10 seconds a day to sort the mail. Get a life.

[tammywammy]

38. Ahh, thanks for the correction. n/t

[senseandsensibility]

2. Great ad! The other good one the workers sponsor

is about the post office not being taxpayer funded, but funded entirely by stamps. They are getting the truth out there!

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. It is true, and we have gone over and over and over this

many a times, call your critter... two bills that need to change, the 2006 bill and then this needs to be reformed

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. This is something that needs to be reported in the mainstream press.

Congress people don't do the right thing, unless they know they're being watched.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Alas the MSM is in the effort

to get rid of it...

Yes it goes that deep

[Drew Richards]

30. Nadin posted this a week ago HERE IS THE AD that is running

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMXcVwtJtSk

Oh and here is another for you to think about...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX_WasAnDcM&feature=related

[The Backlash Cometh]

40. It's a dark place that the Republicans are taking us.

[OnlinePoker]

4. Last year, they lost $8 Billion

Only $5.5 billion can be attributed to the prefunding. They would still have been in a big hole even if they didn't have to pay that amount. In 3 years (2008 to 2010), mail volume dropped 32 Billion pieces (about 16%), total revenue dropped from $74.9 Billion to $67 Billion (11%), and total employment dropped from 663,238 to 583,908 (12%). If you look at the volume forecast in the link, you'll see it's only going to get worse in the next 10 years (if the worst case scenario comes to pass, much, much worse).

http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/annual-reports/fy2010.pdf

[girl gone mad]

8. So what?

What other government agencies should we force to turn a profit? How about the military? If they don't start running in the black, we can shut them down, too, right?

[brentspeak]

22. What's a bigger number: $2.5 billion or $8 billion?

[Abq_Sarah]

32. If they had been allowed to keep the money they earned

In prior years it either wouldn't be an issue or wouldn't be as large an issue. Congress went after then when profits were high figuring they could supplement the general fund without raising taxes. As the economy crashed, they kept demanding money and now act all outraged because the well has run dry.

[Drew Richards]

37. And you are obviously not an accountant or stating false equivilencies

try reading the financial statement on page 85-86 WITH the asterix's showing what the hell happened to their cash flow...

5 billion boom gone...
8 billion boom gone...

net operating loss for 2010 8 billion...

I am fucking impressed they are not already shutdown by this government juggling act...

[Gari]

5. So glad they are not just taking it!

I love USPS! Everything goes to my safe, locked P.O. Box.

With UPS, FedX and others, I have to hunt around the yard for where they left packages. Sometimes, they leave it with a neighbor or someone across town with a similar name.

Maybe doing away with the reduced rate for political mailings? (Just kidding)

They should start talking about those on Social Security not getting their checks. Not everyone uses direct deposit, although they will be forced to do so in 2013.

[proverbialwisdom]

6. Outrageous! Details here.

http://www.truth-out.org/last-union/1315492298
Postal Workers: The Last Union
Thursday 8 September 2011 by: Allison Kilkenny, Truthout | News Analysis

http://www.truth-out.org/postal-service-death-bathtub-drowning/1316542679
Postal Service: Death by Bathtub Drowning
Wednesday 21 September 2011 by: Allison Kilkenny, Truthout | News Analysis


RECOMMENDED:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl92Exgh9yI
VIDEO: 09-09-2011 4 - Signed, Sealed, Indebted, with Allison Kilkenny
Countdown with Keith Olbermann (8:13)

[Quantess]

10. Thanks.

[pinboy3niner]

11. Another thread...on petitions and events Sept. 27

Posted in GD by Kashka-Kat:

Now they're after the Post Office - Sept 27 fight back!!!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1981040

[Historic NY]

12. I think the PMG should cut off their free franking mailings.

[elleng]

13. Its certainly true; been discussed here many times.

Postal Union seeking ouster of head of USPS. I've seen an interview w him and union head, and USPS head did NOT present the facts correctly; nor did he do so in a recent Congressional hearing.

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. You would think that this was public record.

A 2006 Law would be easy to present to Congress.

[Abq_Sarah]

31. Not just the 2006 law

But the 2003 law which made the USPS responsible for 27 billion dollars worth of military pension obligations.

The Congress has been using the post office as a political tool and cash cow for years. The initial creation of the USPS from the Post Office Department was intended to get their greedy fingers out of the pot but since Congress governs Congress, they found a way to shove their hands back in.

[The Backlash Cometh]

39. This dishonesty from Washington disgusts me.

[Brigid]

14. I saw that ad today too.

I had wondered if, in the event the USPS folds, this would be the only country in the civilized world without a postal service. Apparently the answer is yes. :(

[999998th word]

15. Thanks-I'm in..don't work 4 the USPS-but this is wrong.

USPS does a damn good job=44 cents for postage anywhere in the US..profitization w/cost 10x more

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. I would think it's necessary for Homeland security.

Just think what would happen if a terrorist were to take control of a private mail service store and began sending mail bombs through the store? Now multiply that by several terrorist in control of several private mail services.

It would be impossible for the U.S. Homeland Security to monitor and they would all have to be shut down, leaving the rest of us without any reliable mailing service.

It's a stupid, stupid, stupid idea to close down USPS.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

23. Banks want you to do all your banking online.

They want to completely digitalize the system. Once USPS is shut
down people that still use checks, paper statements etc. will be forced
to comply. Remember a couple years ago when the stock market
wiped out billions in one day and attributing it to a computer glitch?
Well imagine what will happen if we no longer use anything other than
a click of our mouse to remote deposit and pay bills.

[county worker]

25. That is true. The problem is that Congress forced the post office to fund future retirement

payments now. The post office is not funded by taxes yet most people thing it is and that it loses money which it doesn't and that private business could do it better which it can't.

It is amazing that the truth is never reported by the msm.

[The Backlash Cometh]

28. Jon Stewart needs to get right on it and point out the facts, since the

mainstream is so crappy at telling the truth.

[Shagbark Hickory]

26. They need to reverse this law and put an end to the corruption. These laws are bought and paid for.

[femrap]

27. I'm sending

snail mail Halloween cards and Xmas cards. The cards are NOT MADE IN CHINA and are made w/ recycled paper.

Let's keep the Postal workers employed. OK?

[sad sally]

33. Know I'll be called corny and out of touch, but old Christmas and

birthday cards or letters from friends and relatives who no longer walk this Earth, and letters from our son when he was in the war are very precious (to me). Saved or printed emails somehow aren't quite the same. I still like to write and receive hand-written letters, put 'em in an envelope (remembering addresses, cities, states and zips), stamp them and walk to the mailbox to raise the little red flag.

(remember "The Postman" staring Kevin Costner?)

[femrap]

41. I am with you sad sally....

nothing like snail mail...you can touch it and feel it. Nothing like it.

[phantom power]

29. They should double their rates. I dare UPS or FedEx to deliver an envelope anywhere for $1.

[pnorman]

34. K & R!

So that I can follow this thread.

[in_cog_ni_to]

36. Yeah it's true and we can thank..who else????...the FUCKING RETHUGS.

Surprise, surprise! They also fucked up the Postal System. Everything they touch turns to SHIT.

<snip> It was only a few years ago that the USPS was considered not only stable, but thriving. The biggest volume in pieces of mail handled by the Postal Service in its 236-year history was in 2006. The second and third busiest years were in 2005 and 2007, respectively. But it was two events: one crafted during the Bush years and another supervised by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, that would cripple this once great institution.

Perhaps it was its booming history that first drew Congress' attention to the Postal Service in 2006 when it passed the Postal Accountability Enhancement Act (PAEA), which mandated that the Postal Service would have to fully fund retiree health benefits for future retirees. That's right. Congress was demanding universal health care coverage. But it even went beyond that. Congress was mandating coverage for future human beings.

"It's almost hard to comprehend what they're talking about, but basically they said that the Postal Service would have to fully fund future retirees' health benefits for the next 75 years and they would have to do it within a ten-year window," says Chuck Zlatkin, political director of the New York Metro Area Postal Union.

It was an impossible order, and strangely, a task unshared by any other government service, agency, corporation or organization within the United States. The act meant that every September 30th, the USPS had to cough up $5.5 billion to the Treasury for the pre-funding of future retirees' health benefits, meaning the Postal Service pays for employees 75 years into the future. The USPS is funding the retirement packages of people who haven't even been born yet.<snip>

http://crooksandliars.com/kenneth-quinnell/more-details-emerge-republican-as

[sfpcjock]

42. A great ad!

Thx