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Pelosi’s Postal Bailout: Return to Sender
Townhall.com ^ | March 24, 2020 | Ross Marchand

Posted on 03/24/2020 9:00:25 AM PDT by Kaslin

To some lawmakers, there’s never been a better time to embrace pet projects and ideological wish lists. House Democrats recently introduced a $2.5 trillion “Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act,” which includes many ludicrous items, ranging from carbon offsets for the struggling U.S. airline industry to $15 minimum wage stipulations for businesses getting relief from the government. But, perhaps the most hare-brained scheme is an asinine proposal to bail out the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Americans need a simple, straightforward bill right now to get the country back on track, not misguided Postal “reform” and other insane non-priorities.

According to the Federal News Network: “In addition to setting aside $25 billion for USPS until September 2022, the 1,400-page bill would also forgive the Postal Service’s $11 billion debt to the Treasury Department and allow the agency to borrow another $15 billion. The bill would also eliminate a $3 billion annual borrowing limit for this line of credit from Treasury.” Now of course, it makes sense to give the USPS a temporary reprieve on paying back debts even though they don’t exactly have the best track record in timely repayments to the U.S. Treasury. Extending out the agency’s borrowing limit could also make sense, based on an evidence-based assessment of the USPS’s current fiscal needs. But in her frenzied push to enact a far-flung, far-left agenda, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wants to go far beyond temporary borrowing increases and loan extensions and do a full-scale taxpayer bailout (we told you taxpayers would be paying for this).

Blanket debt forgiveness in addition to $25 billion for the USPS would merely subsidize reckless behavior and kick the can down the road for much-needed Postal reform. The problem is that current agency spending is woefully ill-targeted to get mail to the American people as fast as possible. Wasteful spending is particularly bad for the “middle-mile,” or the delivery of mail from postal facility to postal facility (before it arrives in consumers’ mailboxes). The USPS outsources these intermediate deliveries to private contractors, resulting in about $3.5 billion in annual spending on highway contract routes (HCRs). Unfortunately, these contractors often bill the USPS the full amount for their services despite missed deadlines and preventable mechanical breakdowns. Network Distribution Centers often fail to request back the funds due to incomplete reviews and paperwork lapses.

For example, in February 2018, the Inspector General found, “Chicago NDC administrative officials (AO) did not submit any reimbursement requests for the more than 22,000 YMS chargeable irregularities they reported during FYs 2016 and FY 2017.” In its 2019 report on Postal reform, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance estimated that these chargeable irregularities cost the USPS more than $1 billion per year. The USPS’s financial problems aren’t just limited to reckless contracting practices. The USPS runs a postage reselling program through which companies with high shipping volumes can take advantage of lower-than-usual postage prices via middlemen such as Stamps.com. The problem is that these reckless middlemen sell stamps at these lower-than-usual prices (plus a markup) to companies that don’t meet the volume thresholds set forth by the USPS. Resellers such as Stamps.com then pocket the markup, taking money that would’ve gone into USPS coffers. These shenanigans likely cost the USPS more than $200 million per year, yet agency leadership barely acknowledges that the reselling program even exists.

No one expects the USPS to reform its operations overnight. The agency is already straining itself to keep its workers and consumers safe from the coronavirus and it makes sense to extend temporary borrowing relief to the agency. But, forgiving debt outright and allowing continued spending and pricing problems sends the wrong message to an agency that has more than $140 billion in unfunded obligations. It’s time for Congress to get down to business and help all agencies, businesses, and households weather this storm, instead of ramming through perverse Postal “reforms” that nobody asked for and does nothing to fix the underlying structural problems at the USPS.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: coronavirus; demonrats; nancypiglosi; stimulus; usps

1 posted on 03/24/2020 9:00:25 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The Dems WANT President Trump to have to veto this bill...


2 posted on 03/24/2020 9:03:21 AM PDT by goodnesswins (Trump is as good a dictator as he is a racist.....)
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To: goodnesswins

The Senate should never come close to this Christmas Tree.


3 posted on 03/24/2020 9:04:48 AM PDT by bray (Pray for President Trump)
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To: Kaslin

There are EVIL people in this world. The most sophisticated ones are in our government.

2020

See clearly

Sorry fellow countrymen. You didn’t do it. I pledge to you that I didn’t do it...but America is gone.

C orrupt
O organization
N ever
G iving
R easonable
E xplanations to
S lave
S ubjects

Children are waking up from nightmares. Parents are waking up to nightmares.

Worst case scenario:

Well-disciplined militias need to get together with OUR sons, OUR daughters, OUR nieces and OUR nephews...in other words OUR armed forces in case SHTF by POLITICOS & PROPAGANDISTS foreign and domestic. CONGRE$$ won’t declare foreign war, but they are running asymmetric war on us. R.I.P. Jim, John, Rick. Great young men. Friends. Just in case.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFPigJiISCc

Thanks, Chief.

535+++++ vs. 330 MILLION

1. Supply chains opened.

I don’t care if they are eliminated by any means necessary. I never thought my thoughts would come to this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLpfbcXTeo8

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. - Declaration


4 posted on 03/24/2020 9:05:06 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: Kaslin

If Trump says no, or there is some two-week delay going on...I might suggest a dozen Senators and forty Congressmen will be virus-stricken. Even Pelosi might be on that list.


5 posted on 03/24/2020 9:05:47 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: PGalt

6 posted on 03/24/2020 9:06:39 AM PDT by knarf
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To: Kaslin

The Democrat COVID Bill Scam Exposed by Oklahoma Senator James Lankford

https://youtu.be/smeanVtQmQk


7 posted on 03/24/2020 9:12:20 AM PDT by RasterMaster ("Towering genius disdains a beaten path." - Abraham Lincoln)
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To: knarf

EXACTLY. Create a premeditated crisis with your amplifiers, Don’t let it go to waste. Come up with solutions that benefit you. AGAIN.


8 posted on 03/24/2020 9:14:56 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: pepsionice
"If Trump says no, or there is some two-week delay going on...I might suggest a dozen Senators and forty Congressmen will be virus-stricken. Even Pelosi might be on that list."

The world would be a better place if Pelosi, Schumer and some of their ardent supporters were called home.

9 posted on 03/24/2020 9:30:34 AM PDT by Truth29
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To: Kaslin

Wouldn’t it be funny of Trump played Nasty tearing the SOTU address in half in the background (multiple monitors so every possible camera angle had to show it) while he systematically tore every page of this turkey that didn’t relate to fighting the Chinese virus and damage directly related to it?


10 posted on 03/24/2020 9:34:16 AM PDT by null and void (By the pricking of my lungs, Something wicked this way comes ...)
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To: Truth29

I fully empathize.


11 posted on 03/24/2020 9:38:03 AM PDT by null and void (By the pricking of my lungs, Something wicked this way comes ...)
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To: PGalt

Trump is the quarterback, not Baraq.
He knows how to run the Rham Emanuel playbook too.


12 posted on 03/24/2020 9:38:12 AM PDT by nascarnation
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To: Kaslin

How do I know the pelosi-19 colonavirus isn’t coming in my mail?


13 posted on 03/24/2020 9:51:22 AM PDT by clearcarbon
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To: Kaslin

Apparently Pelousy has caved. They are going to now help pass the Senate bill.


14 posted on 03/24/2020 10:22:31 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Kaslin

This is a good thread to drop a thought I had today.

There is one thing for sure in this world. The entire economy can be destroyed, but we’ll still get our daily dose of junk mail.


15 posted on 03/24/2020 11:21:28 AM PDT by zeugma (I sure wish I lived in a country where the rule of law actually applied to those in power.)
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To: nascarnation

So true. Leadership for America and Americans. It’s a beautiful thing.


16 posted on 03/24/2020 12:37:14 PM PDT by PGalt
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To: Kaslin

My neighbor was on vacation for 5 weeks ++. He had me collect his mail & process it daily for anything I had to phone him about to make sure no payments were late.

One letter was from State of Utah-—and postage said 38.9 cents.....NOT 55 cents, which is what I pay.

Hospital sent letter about tests done. Postage was 46.8 cents...not the 55 cents I pay.

I wonder how many pieces of mail the State of Utah sends out each year?

How many pieces the hospital sends out?

I don’t care if they are using ‘metered mail. The handling is all the same from the beginning to the end delivery.

Many entities are getting a big break on their mail rates, and the post office is losing money.

Does Trump know this???


17 posted on 03/24/2020 12:52:51 PM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: Kaslin

Of all of the US gov’t Administrative functions, I most use/appreciate the National Forest Service, the USPS, the USGS and more minorly the NPS.

Of course, at my age, the SSA helps to fund my interest in the above.


18 posted on 03/24/2020 8:12:13 PM PDT by Paladin2
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