Senator's Husband Stands to Pocket Big Bucks off this Government Deal

originally posted by: Kali74
Well if the GOP would stop forcing the bankruptcy of the USPS they wouldn't have to lease off property.

There was a time, and a place for the post office.

In the 21st century it's no longer needed.

The sheer amount of land owned by government is ridiculous. and should be returned to the states from where they reside.

The simple fact government has no place in business.

It is this countries largest,most powerful monopoly.

a reply to: queenofswords
Read about this and posted it on FB. This is sad and should not be allowed to happen. They are now basically laughing at us right to our faces They don't care about you or me. They just care about how they can screw us over, and in some cases they do it using your tax dollar. Sad................very sad.

a reply to: neo96

Ridiculous.

The United States Postal Service (originally called the U.S. Post Office Department, when it was completely managed by the U.S. government before 1971) also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, often abbreviated as USPS is an independent agency of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the United States. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution. The USPS traces its roots to 1775 during the Second Continental Congress, where Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. The cabinet-level Post Office Department was created in 1792 from Franklin's operation and transformed into its current form in 1971 under the Postal Reorganization Act.

The USPS employed 626,764 workers (as of January 2014) and operated 211,654 vehicles in 2013.[2] The USPS is the operator of the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world.[3] The USPS is legally obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price and quality. The USPS has exclusive access to letter boxes marked "U.S. Mail" and personal letterboxes in the United States, but still competes against private package delivery services, such as UPS and FedEx.[4]

The USPS has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s with the minor exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters.[5] Since the 2006 all-time peak mail volume,[6] after which Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act,[7] (which mandated $5.5 billion per year to be paid into an account to fully prefund both employee retirement health and pension benefits, a requirement exceeding that of other government and private organizations [8]), revenue dropped sharply due to recession-influenced[9] declining mail volume,[10] prompting the postal service to look to other sources of revenue while cutting costs to reduce its budget deficit.[11] The USPS lost US$ 5.5 billion in 2014, and its revenue was US$ 67.8 billion.

Wikipedia

a reply to: Kali74

Kali, the Postal Service's main problem causing its financial problems will be over with next year. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (H.R. 6407) put some measures in place to oversee some accounting and procedural practices. You can Google the Act to read the full text. One of the requirements of the act has caused most of the controversy about the postal service's financial strain:

One stipulation of the PAEA has caused controversy. It stipulates that the USPS is to make payments of $5.4 - $5.8 billion into the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund, each year, from 2007 to 2016 in order to prefund 50 years of estimated costs.

This requirement also explicitly stated that the USPS was to stop using its savings to reduce postal debt, which was stipulated in Postal Civil Service Retirement System Funding Reform Act of 2003.[4] This is in addition to deductions from pay for federal contribution to social services.[5]

This pre-funding method is unique to the USPS. In June 2011, the USPS had to suspend its weekly payment of 115 million into the fund because it had reached 8 billion dollars in debt and the retirement plan had a surplus of 6.9 billion dollars.[6] The Postal Service has not made any of the pre-funding payments since that time. This stipulation has effectively forced the USPS to operate at a severe loss since the PAEA took effect.[citation needed]

a reply to: queenofswords

Yes that act is exactly what I'm talking about that is the attack on the USPS by the GOP. It was profitable, not dependent on taxes and the GOP wants it privatized so that private shipping companies can get that revenue. Think the GOP would ever require that of a private corporation?

a reply to: Kali74

The intent is to ensure that the growing unfunded liability for retiree health care for current employees is covered. These employees negotiated for and earned these benefits with their work, so USPS should pay for them. Likewise, USPS must be self-sustaining, and not funded by the taxpayers. Prefunding is a prudent measure to protect employee’s earned benefits and taxpayer money.

a reply to: queenofswords

Completely unjustified and unprecedented. It's blatantly obvious what it was.