1/ The Post Office is not broke–and it hasn’t taken any of our tax money since 1971 -What’s going on here? Right-wing sabotage of USPS financing¬- that’s what¬-per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 by @JimHightower , “In 2006¬- the Bush White House and Congress whacked the post office…
@JimHightower 2/ …with the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act–an incredible piece of ugliness requiring the agency to ---per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 ---
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@JimHightower 3/ …PRE-PAY the health care benefits not only of current employees¬- but also of all employees who’ll retire during the next 75 years¬- Yes¬- that includes employees who’re not yet born! No other agency and no corporation has to do this¬- Worse¬----per bit.ly/3ctdRs6…
@JimHightower 4/ …--- this ridiculous law demands that USPS fully fund this seven-decade burden by 2016¬- Imagine the shrieks of outrage if ---per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 --- …
@JimHightower 5/ …Congress tried to slap FedEx or other private firms with such an--- per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 --- onerous requirement¬- This politically motivated mandate is costing the Postal Service $5¬-5 billion a year–money taken right out ---per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 ---
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@JimHightower 6/ …of postage revenue that could be going to services¬- That’s the real source of the “financial crisis” squeez-ing America’s post offices¬-per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 ---
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@JimHightower 7/ …But it’s not the only hocus pocus that has falsely fabricated the public perception that our mail agency is “broke¬-” Due to a 40-year-old accounting error¬- the federal Office of Personnel Management has --- per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 ---
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@JimHightower 8/ …overcharged the post office by as much as $80 billion for payments into the Civil Service Retirement System¬- This means that¬- far from being a drain on the public treasury¬- per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 ---
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@JimHightower 9/ …USPS has had billions of its sales dollars erroneously diverted into the treasury¬- Restore the agency’s access to its own postage money¬- and the impending “collapse” goes away¬- per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 ---
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@JimHightower 10/ …BANKRUPTCY¬- That’s all well and good¬- claim postal agency opponents¬- but there’s no disputing the fact that government-delivered mail is a quaint idea whose time has gone¬- per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 --- …
@JimHightower 11/ …They point out that USPS’s first-class business has fallen by about 7.5 percent in each of the past couple of years¬- and even Postmaster Donahoe says flatly¬- “That’s not going to change¬-” per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 --- …
@JimHightower 12/ …This funereal school of despair breaks into two groups: “Kill it” and “Shrink it¬-”The killers are the outright privatizers who’ve pushed for decades to get the post office out of… well¬- out of our mailboxes¬- In the 1960’s¬- per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 ---
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@JimHightower 13/ …AT&T chairman Fred Kappel headed a presidential commission on postal reform¬- and he told a congressional panel¬- “If I could¬- I’d make the Post Office a private enterprise¬-” He couldn’t¬-per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 ---
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@JimHightower 14/ …but he [AT&T chairman Fred Kappel] did set down the marker that remains the Holy Grail of the corporate elite¬- Unsurprisingly¬- FedEx CEO Fredrick Smith (a former board member of the Koch boys’ Cato Institute) ---per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 --- …
@JimHightower 15/ …has been the leading corporate champion for¬- as he [FedEx CEO Fredrick Smith] put it in 1999¬- “closing down the USPS¬- per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 ---
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@JimHightower 16/ …”The greater danger at the moment¬- however¬- are the shrinkers¬- They propose to fix the proud public service by cutting it down to size (they mean “fix” in the same way veterinarians use the term)¬- per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 --- …
@JimHightower 17/ …Postmaster Donahoe is presently the shrinker-in-chief¬- having put forth a plan that will: Close 3,700 of our post offices¬-Shut down about half of the 487 mail processing centers across the country¬-Cut more than 100,000 postal jobs ---per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 --- …
@JimHightower 18/ …(or¬- as [Postmaster] Donahoe prefers to phrase it¬- “reduce head count”)¬-Restrict mail delivery to five days a week by eliminating all Saturday postal services¬- ---per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 ---
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@JimHightower 19/ …[Postmaster Donahoe prefers] Do away with the agency’s 40-year standard of next-day delivery of first-class mail¬- replacing it with a lesser goal of two days or more¬----per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 ---
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@JimHightower 20/ …Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine is among the people of common sense who recognize that the post office “cannot expect to gain more business¬- which it desperately needs¬- if it is reducing service¬-” ---per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 ---
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@JimHightower 21/ …Likewise¬- Fredric Rolando¬- head of the National Association of Letter Carriers¬- sees that compromising “high-quality service” is a boneheaded business move: ---per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 ---
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@JimHightower 22/ …[Fredric Rolando¬- head of the National Association of Letter Carriers says] “Degrading standards not only hurts the public and the businesses we serve; ---per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 ---
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@JimHightower 23/ …[Fredric Rolando¬- head of the National Association of Letter Carriers says] it’s also counterproductive for the Postal Service because it will drive more people away from using the mail¬-” ---per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 --- …
@JimHightower 24/ …Such drastic cutbacks¬- consolidations¬- and eliminations create a suicidal spiral that will slowly but surely kill USPS. ---per bit.ly/3ctdRs6 ---
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