It's all about killing the USPS and giving all the market to private companies. Just like schools and so many other things. Their friends need to get richer. This is an ultimate republican dirty trick, passing that pension requirement.

This is nonsense and we need to fight to save this public institution.

and we must fight it... the USPS needs to change and adapt but they have always been efficient and trust worthy... I have chosen to use USPS for ALL my mailings...

That is one of the largest unions in the country and you know how Repukes' corporate contributors feel about unions.

How dare they try to end our USPS?

How can we stop them?

I wonder how many we could collect to save USPS?

I don't think the problems of the USPS are very high on most peoples' radar.

or a package. USPS is much more reasonably priced than UPS.

"pro-corporate anti-government (when convenient) party".

I HATE these liars and their propaganda that corporations, with their greed, are the best ones to provide all of our services!!!!!!!!! Corporations are required to provide ever-increasing profits to their investors. Too often, this can only be accomplished on the backs of the employees, by pay cuts and benefit losses, and decreases in the quality of service, as well.

I love the Post office. They provide a great service, under conditions that no regular business would tolerate. Please support the continuance of this much-needed service!

goes on about USPS that someone in an airport started to tell me.

I mentioned the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, requiring the U.S. Mail to pre-fund its retirement health care benefit account 75 years and what's up with that when he started going on about it being a losing gov. money pit.

He asked me if I knew thar the government sends it's own mail for free

I asked him if that was a new enactment like the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act since they seemed to really have problems after that act and this is the only agency given this requirement

He got the idea I was not a potential tea convert and moved so I did not get to hear all the talking points baggers have been given to believe USPS = bad
and sway public opinion with the BS.

Patriots are identified to be picked up and sent to the FEMA death camps on the day specified by Obama. I am not kidding. This has been n the wingnut rumor mill for years.

Same reason they want to get rid of all public schools. They call them Indoctrination Centers to make everyone gay and communist.

And they vote against fire and police because they are part of the UN, etc. Police State we're all hurdling toward.

All public workers are like the East German Stasi and compiling data to come and get them.

The list goes on and on.

Yes, there are people who want the Post Office gone and will vote for those who'd destroy it.

Some can afford the outrageous prices of the private companies.

Others fancy themselves to the John Connor guy in Terminator and must eliminate any public record since 'they' are coming to get 'em.

I could give links or names, but anyone who has checked these guys out for a few years knows 'em.

IOW, you just saw the tip of the iceberg. And it's a cult that has specific dog whistles.

When it costs him $3.00 to send a birthday card to his grandson? Cuz that's what this is all about....privatizing the USPS.

at all when it's private I betcha
Not that a bagger cares
As long as he has his

Why do Republicans hate America?

Say hello to inevitable oblivion, assholes.

that delivery of mail would be in the hands of profit-makers who could abandon routes and entire sections of the country that, due to terrain or other natural barriers (currently served by USPS), make them more expensive to maintain, cutting off people in those areas. This would have a serious affect on local businesses, markets, etc.

As it is now, even when a package originates as UPS or FedEx or one of those, if destined for a remote (expensive to service) area, the last leg of its journey is performed by (are you ready for this) the UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE so that cost is borne by the USPS! UPS or FedEx can maintain their profitability. This proves that Republicans are willing to sacrifice what they hold dear (profits) in order to destroy a government service.

Destroying the postal service would be an enormous blow to small communities that rely heavily on their local post office. Closing a small town's post office always hurts, and their continued existence draws strong non-partisan support pretty much everywhere (except among executives in for-profit courier and package delivery services).

We should be expanding the mission of the postal service into banking and Internet access, not cutting and closing

...fired the air traffic controllers as a way to end all unions, so this is the first move in destroying all public services. If it happens, then all prisons will be private and run for profit, all schools will be private, all hospitals, all bridges, streets, parks and libraries will be privately owned. It's a nightmare, corporate/fascist scenario. This is no exaggeration. It will take them time but closing the post office lays down the template for the complete private ownership of every aspect of civic life.

So wouldn't that make it harder to get rid of?

TlalocW

They kill 2 birds with one stone with this. I bet non-union Fedex had a lot to do with this.

Honestly... GW was in there 8 long years and they meddled and screwed so much up. Since we can't hold that bunch accountable, can't we go back and at least repeal some of the horrible things they did to our institutions??? Can we not go back and fix this so our postal system WON'T be permanently privatized because it's back was broke by this pirate legislation?

problem", is what I mean. there are enough Dems with microphones that the whole world should know the postal service has plenty of money and is doing great.

I know a letter carrier (since retired) who was in on the ground floor of the Tea Party movement. He was one of the first "poll watchers" who would go to Youngstown precincts and harass minority voters by demanding an ID in 2008.

He was right on the front lines when Ohio's governor wanted to bust unions with SB5, explaining that his union was federal, not a state public union. He said we have to "rein them in". He claimed that his republicans loved the postal union and that they would never touch his pension.

I don't talk to him anymore, but now I'm tempted. Other than that, I'd love to let Mr 'Bagger continue his hate for working people if the Dems can get the Repubs out of the Postal Service.

Why do we have words like "asshole" when we can just use "republican" as a catchall?

get back revenues that have been lost by the significant reduction, and it is significant, of the decline of first class mail.


Not only should they be able to expand their delivery services and products but should be able to do more in financial transactions including savings, as post offices outside the US are able to do.

...their workers, and taxpayers, by means of labeling their drivers "independent contractors" so that they are ineligible for benefits.

Not only does the U. S. Post Office give better service for less money, but this constitutionally authorized agency manages to insure its workers rather than weaseling a way to call them contractors the delivery people or hospital district taxpayers pick up the slack.

Republicans hate the constitution, and hate the American people.

It is pre-funding retirement benefits for employees whose parents haven't been born yet and that, if the GOP gets its way, will never be hired because the agency won't exist any more.

This is the thing that gets me: If you went to the private sector and told them, you can have the Postal Service but you may not ever discontinue any of its services, no sane company would take it. Right now, someone living in Key West, Florida, can write a letter to someone living in Barrow, Alaska (Key West is as far southeast as you can go and Barrow is on the north coast of Alaska), put a First Class Mail stamp on it and it will be delivered. That is one of the things a functional government does for its citizens and it is what the GOP wants to prevent from happening.

Last edited Sun Nov 18, 2012, 01:28 PM - Edit history (2)

Privatize the post office services, and you invite further corruption of the mail-in ballot part of our election process.

Outsource, Privatize, Deregulate. We're in another "Guilded Age," and appear to ignorantly be living out the following statement by the late Spanish-born philosopher, George Santayana (1863 - 1952):

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

UPS or FEDEX and I am guessing they are making a good profit. Where I live their overnight delivery cost is way less and when the service started they already had the workers, trucks, and planes. I buy a lot of merchandise online including items such as pet food and when I'm not home USPS has a key to the apartment's lobby door and mailbox area so they can safely leave it where as UPS/Fedex has to keep coming back.

of present workers. The crisis is being deliberately heighten to tear this agency apart. The question one need to ask who gains from this.

The GOP wants to kill the USPS union. That is their target.

While advances in technology has cut into the Post Office's breadth (first e-mail, then Facebook/Twitter/etc., & the fazing-out of paper for digital), the Post Office is of supreme importance.
It is NOT a business.
It is a government service.

I HATE to hear bad news concerning the future of the Post Office.
How can we sit by & let the Post Office fade away?
Privatization will NOT be an improvement because business only serves its investors/chiefs.
The existence of the Post Office keeps Fed Ex & UPS in check because they know how central the Post Office is.
If the Post Office disappears they will have no more restraints & won't have to keep up the level of service they have now.
Prices will go up, services will go down & you can't do nothing about it because there's no alternative.

Take out pizza? Yeah let that be a business. Video game shops? Yeah let that be a business.
Hair salons? Yeah let that be a business. Cell phone shops? Yeah let that be a business.

But Post Office? THAT is a Government Service.
We need to respect our Government Services.
Other things are not as important so let them be businesses but the Post Office is too important to our society to leave in the hands of privatization.

We don't want privatization of the Fire Department, do we?
You should already know how privatization of Military goes. Mercenaries are historically disloyal.
Privatizing Social Security would have left it to the casinos of Wall Street.

Some things are too important to leave to a bottom line business mentality.
Some things are for the greater good of society & must be upheld.

We may have complained every time the cost of stamps rose in cents over the years but really what other place do you know that will send messages for under 50¢ a piece?
What other place do you know delivers messages to your box everyday without charging you for it?
What other place do you know sorts through all those packages & messages without charging you for it?

We don't appreciate the Post Office ENOUGH.
Yeah junk mail is annoying but I'll deal with junk mail all day long if it means keeping that service intact.
We lose the Post Office, we lose out period.

What if the internet breaks down? How will you communicate then?
Preserve Post Office pensions, preserve Post Office unions, preserve the Post Office. PERIOD.
John Lucas

Only the Rethuglicans would be dumb enough to shut the friggin' post office.

"cause you see... god has a way to shut that whole thing down snd the woman won't get pregnant" .... by The Science and Technology Committee of the U.S. Congress.

Here is the bill's text..The bill's sponsors/co-sponsors were, Sponsor- Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va.. : co-sponsors, Danny Davis ,D-IL, John McHugh , R-NY and Rep. Henry WAXMAN , D-CA.. And I thought Waxman was a candidate for sainthood . In a lame duck session you can always hope he did not know what he was doing. ?. Legislation gets passed quickly , without being read by anyone.?
You can bet Waxman will get a phone call from us..
Third link, Fedex's political contributions.. No mention of Waxman.. for the 2012 election cycle..

The bill passed the House by a 'voice vote.' So no record can be found to determine how each Congress member voted..
.http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2065503

.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/109/hr6407
.
http://www.buybackyourvote.com/company/fedex#t=graph&v=cand&se=&st=&y=2012&ch=n

They serve only one master GREED and the rest of us can go straight to hell as far as they are concerned.

that's why House Republicans should be on trial for treason and thrown out of the country after their prison term is up.

Regardless of its source, its a bullshit meme.