back in 2006 that was set to go off this year. Kaboom" says Rep. (and car thief) Darryl Issa.
The U.S. Postal Service is is facing financial problems that were largely created by Congress. Now Congress wants to strip postal workers of their union rights.
>>> How much do you know about the united states postal service? You hear a lot of negative comments about their finances, don't you? well, earlier today, I spoke to the postal workers in Orlando, Florida. These are men and women in the same boat as republican employees in states like wisconsin and verizon workers across the country on strike right now. they're fighting for their jobs, their rights and their futures. the united states postal service, announcing today that it wants to reduce its work forest by 20%. but layoffs of that nature are prohibited by union contracts. that's where the republicans step right on in. gop congressman daryl isa has introduced a bill that would slash postal worker wages, slash benefits and end protections against layoffs. but the financial problems facing the postal service, and i want you to hear this, were created largely, not by you and me but by the congress. in 2006, a law passed was forcing the postal service to provide 75 years worth of pension funding within a 10-year window. who the hell else has to do that? independent firms estimate that the united states postal service already overpaid the fund by $50 billion to $80 billion. so, even though the post office made $226 million in the first quarter profits for this year, 2011, all of that money went to the congressional mandate fund. you know what they're trying to do, folks? they are trying to shut down the united states postal service. they want to privatize this, as well. and i want to make it very clear tonight that not one tax dollar goes to running the united states postal service. it is all operated and funded through the stamps that you and i purchase. joining me tonight is cliff duffy, he is the president of the american postal workers union. mr. duffy, great to have you with us tonight.
>> Good to be with you, Ed.
>> Did what i say wrong? or is that accurate? can you add to it?
>> That's very accurate, ed. the postal service has overpaid into their retirement monday, billions of dollars. that's money that's withheld from the workers and was matched by postage revenue that we, through our productivity, have earned for the postal service. and that was given to congress to prepay our retirement funds. well, the actuaries, the independent actuaries said there is at least $50 billion overpaid in this one fund. and $75 billion paid into it by the other actuary. this is done by the office of the inspector general and the regulatory commission.
>> What can congress do to reverse this? to balance your books a lot better because you are a profitable organization. what happened?
>> Even with that money drained off in our retirement system, the postal service was required to prefund our health insurance into retirement by $5 billion for the last five or six years. without the $20 billion or $30 billion going into that fund, the post office would be profitable. congress wants us to continue to put money into these retirement funds and to keep prefending. but if they would credit the postal service with that money, that's actually the workers' money.
>> Sure. the postal service would pay off its debt, pay off the debts necessary and have cash to get through this trying time.
>> So, your mandate --
>> The concession that's been created by the congress to blame the workers. they're blaming the workers for the problems of the country, which is there's not enough commerce in this country because they allow the system to set up to send all of the work overseas.
>> Why is the congress coming forward and saying they want to -- the postal service wants to cut the workforce 20% and talking about five-day delivery service. why do they want to do that?
>> It has gone to the congress and asked the congress to release these funds. they say, we can't release these funds. if they release the funds back to the postal service, it would show how much underfunded the rest of the government is. and would show how badly and poorly the rest of the government is run. they put tax dollars into it. postage dollars have come in and it's run properly. they want to take my retirement funds that i put in and the postal service put in, to pay the retirements for the other federal agencies they haven't funded.
>> Wow.
>> That's totally improper.
>> It is improper. you don't use tax dollars. it's all from stamps and services that you sell, correct?
>> That's correct. they're taking our money and using it for other things in the federal government.
>> Do you think they want to privatize? do you think there's some that want to get rid of the postal service and go privatization?
>> There's some people. the postal service still makes $70 billion a year. $70 billion worth of business comes into the postal service. and it supports the trillion-dollar industry out there, paper manufacturing, envelopes, cards, companies that the postal service supports.
>> And reducing it to a five-day delivery service would hurt our economy. there's a lot of studies out there that show that.
>> We would find a way to get the medicines to the individuals. but we want to serve the american people. the postal service is respected by 80% of the public. congress, 20%. i'll be -- i hope the public stays on our side in this to know that we want to provide a service. and we want to be there to help the public.
>> I'll do more on this. i use your service every day. cliff guffey, thank you very much.
>>> Sean Hannity talks about president obama's black liberation theology. we get hannity in The Zone.
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