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Postal Service, ‘Hanging by a Thread,’ Suspends Retirement Contributions
Associated Press ^ | 6-22-11 | RANDOLPH E. SCHMID

Posted on 06/22/2011 12:07:13 PM PDT by Justaham

The financially troubled Postal Service is suspending its employer contribution to the Federal Employee Retirement System.

The agency said Wednesday it is acting to conserve cash as it continues to lose money. It was $8 billion in the red last year because of the combined effects of the recession and the switch of much mail business to the Internet. It faces the possibility of running short of money by the end of this fiscal year in September.

"This move underscores the need for Congress to make bold, quick and substantive reforms to the Postal Service. The USPS is hanging by a thread, along with 8 million private sector jobs that depend on the mail," said Art Sackler, coordinator for the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, a group representing the private sector mailing industry.

The post office said it has informed the Office of Personnel Management that the $115 million FERS payment made every two weeks will be suspended effective Friday. The action is expected to free about $800 million in the current fiscal year. The post office's FERS account currently has a surplus of $6.9 billion, the agency said.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bailout; broke; doom; fers; mismanagement; pensions; postal; spending; union; usps
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To: ctdonath2

It’s not the same.


61 posted on 06/22/2011 2:25:38 PM PDT by Palladin (Sarah Palin in 2012!)
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To: antivenom

I can dream can’t I ;-)


62 posted on 06/22/2011 2:35:10 PM PDT by Ouderkirk (Democrats...the party of Slavery, Segregation, Sodomy, and Sedition)
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To: antivenom

“so sorry that the Biscuit wheels are coming off the gravy train...maybe your mom can take some pointers from the Greeks...and practice rioting...”

THAT is funny.

I think you missed the part where she “paid into it”. Then there are the inevitable “they need to cut something else FIRST”.

Many people simply do not understand that we are broke, and people aren’t going to get the things that government may have promised them, or the things they think they are entitled to.


63 posted on 06/22/2011 2:42:35 PM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: RFEngineer
It is a shame that older Americans were scammed into "federal pensions plans" that were raided long LONG ago...now the "former federal employee" has a taste of what the "average American sees and feels" when we discuss the long ago BANKRUPT SS scam...

all PONZI schemes come to an end...

bottom line...any person who did NOT save money for a rainy day...is going to get sweep away...

64 posted on 06/22/2011 2:54:45 PM PDT by antivenom (visit SBPDLand at least read what you and the liberal media are too afraid to say)
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To: RFEngineer

had another thought...after I hit post

many Americans who look at the long list of things to cut...need to understand for every entitlement program...there is a long list of leeches...and a longer list of leechers

you have the leeches that breed, drug, eat, drink, breed, eat, drug, fight, go to jail, eat, breed, go to hospital...all on the tax payers dime...day after day, generation after generation

NOW you have a culture of people who manage and maintain these leeches...all the entitlement program employees who work atthe city-county-state & federal levels...I call them the Leechers...

The leechers are only needed because of the leeches...

the coming crash of the entitlement ponzi scheme will be HUGE...look at all the artificial wealth that federal employees have gotten addicted to.

Prince Georges couty is almost totally all middle class federal employees...who bought way too much house and live pay check to paycheck...thinking that THEIR job of supporting leeches will never cease...

Image all the federal employees going from pay check to paycheck to broke, angry and poor.

These people can’t and haven’t had to compete in the private sector...they were instead “quotas” and or “affirmative action placements” to meet a social engineering plan to support the masses of leeches with government employed leeches.

IT is going to come down fast and furious...and the leeches and the former leechers...will have a common enemy the tax payer who can NOT sustain either group any longer...

these leeches suck the life out of the tax payers dime from both ends at the same time...


65 posted on 06/22/2011 3:06:17 PM PDT by antivenom (visit SBPDL.com and at least read what you and the liberal media are too afraid to say)
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To: Vermont Lt

Your mother got screwed by her former employer....they knew what was coming....it is NOT the taxpaying public’s fault...


66 posted on 06/22/2011 3:08:52 PM PDT by goodnesswins (...both islam and the democrat plantation thrive on poverty)
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To: Big Giant Head

There is no dumpster anywhere near my mail box. So, it may go into the dumpster at the P.O. but the mailman will have to carry it. And I have every right to write “Return To Sender” if I don’t want the crap.

The post office is just another example of the government telling us what we can and cannot do. I don’t want the advertising fliers they deliver to me. I have to throw them in the trash. So, I’ll let the post office throw them in THEIR trash. How’s that for snarky?


67 posted on 06/22/2011 3:24:03 PM PDT by Terry Mross (I'll only vote for a SECOND party.)
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To: Alberta's Child

That would be OK too.


68 posted on 06/22/2011 3:31:11 PM PDT by super7man
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To: Big Giant Head

So, I’m supposed to buy things I don’t want so the post office employees can collect their pension? Apparently you’re not aware that those “employer” contributions are tax dollars.

And don’t give me that garbage about how those postal workers worked for less. The post office has always been one of the best paying jobs around while the “patron” stands in line because the union makes sure the guy selling stamps gets a break every two hours.

As for those fliers, if I need to buy something I’ll find it. I don’t need a flier to tell me where the store is located.


69 posted on 06/22/2011 3:33:05 PM PDT by Terry Mross (I'll only vote for a SECOND party.)
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To: Justaham
The action is expected to free about $800 million in the current fiscal year. The post office's FERS account currently has a surplus of $6.9 billion, the agency said.

What we need is a "Chainsaw Al" to take it over by using the same tactics used on private sector companies - steal the 'excess' in the pension accounts to pay off the buyout and take it private!

70 posted on 06/22/2011 4:13:07 PM PDT by brityank (The more I learn about the Constitution, the more I realise this Government is UNconstitutional !!)
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To: Terry Mross

Actually, the junk mail you refer to keeps postal rates low. If you had to figure the cost per piece of mail, it would be much higher without the mass mailings that advertisers do.


71 posted on 06/22/2011 4:26:06 PM PDT by optiguy (Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.----- Ronald Reagan)
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To: antivenom

Wow. I am speechless.

I take care of my mother. And six other octogenarians from my family, and that of my wife. Five of them are verterans of WWII who have been screwed over by the VA.

So, I take care of my family, A-hole.

Gravy train? I guess you have no idea how that pension plan worked. I guess you think everyone at the post office is an slot, idiot.

She paid into the pension plan.

Because of the rules, she is not eligible for social security.

She paid into the system, worked 40 years. I recall it was my mid teens before she was able to get off the graveyard shift, and well into my twenties before she was able to get the full Christmas holiday off.

So, tell me, When the thing goes belly up, what do you say to the 85 year olds who cannot rely on the government tit. She played by the rules. She relied on a defined pension plan. She paid for her home, and she pays her taxes.

FU and all like you.


72 posted on 06/22/2011 5:25:36 PM PDT by Vermont Lt (Is there anyone that Obama won't toss under the bus?)
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To: Terry Mross
So, I’m supposed to buy things I don’t want so the post office employees can collect their pension? Apparently you’re not aware that those “employer” contributions are tax dollars.

Since the 1970s, USPS income comes out of the rates charged customers, not from the taxpayers. Postal employees earn their income, like all their fellow taxpayers, by what their customers pay for service. The USPS is not a charity case. If it was there would be no issue about it losing money in the first place.

And don’t give me that garbage about how those postal workers worked for less. The post office has always been one of the best paying jobs around while the “patron” stands in line because the union makes sure the guy selling stamps gets a break every two hours.

Breaks every two hours? Sounds nice, but not my experience. Which post office did you work at?

73 posted on 06/22/2011 5:49:15 PM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
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To: Justaham

Start handing out guns, the postal attrition will handle itself.


74 posted on 06/22/2011 5:51:16 PM PDT by King Moonracer (Bad lighting and cheap fabric, that's how you sell clothing.....)
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To: Vermont Lt
As far as her retirement is concerned, if she was hired before 1984, she's under CSRS, a whole different retirement system. I am unaware of any problems with CSRS.

Even FERS, which this article is concerned about, still has a large surplus.

I do not think your mom has any worries at all.

75 posted on 06/22/2011 6:02:24 PM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
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Comment #76 Removed by Moderator

To: antivenom

“Prince Georges couty is almost totally all middle class federal employees...who bought way too much house and live pay check to paycheck...thinking that THEIR job of supporting leeches will never cease...

Image all the federal employees going from pay check to paycheck to broke, angry and poor....”

Right about when this happens you best arm yourself and be prepared to use deadly force. The fallout will be ugly and might be the fuse on the 3rd War of Independence for this country; a war we MUST be prepared for and win if America is to survive.

Load ALL your empty brass!


77 posted on 06/23/2011 5:57:36 AM PDT by GT Vander (Life's priorities; God, Family, Country. Everything else is just details...)
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To: GT Vander
The state and local folks will be for sure. As for the feds, they can always print the money so I expect they will be shielded somewhat. The event that may trigger much of the collapse may be the resurgence of high inflation: COLA’s will be death on actuarial assumptions.
78 posted on 06/23/2011 6:59:33 PM PDT by MSF BU (YR'S Please Support our troops: JOIN THEM!)
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