Joshua J Mccroan I have to say i am appalled and let down by your recent comments about the postal service. I would suggest visiting an actual mail processing plant and seeing what postal employees actually do and how hard they work before coming out in the washington times making incorrect statements and pushing talk of getting rid of 200,000 employees (which would shut down the postal service) Please do research before making statements you cant back up because you have no clue what your talking about.
Sunday at 4:30pm · Flag

Darrell Issa Joshua, What was incorrect? We can speak with absolute certainty that Rep. Issa’s op-ed was fact-based and on-target. If you would like us to explain the Congressman’s positions, it would be helpful if you actually told us what you think is off-base and what statements you do not think the Congressman can back up and that lead you to believe he doesn’t have a clue.
Thanks. We’re waiting…
Team Issa
18 hours ago · Flag

Joshua J Mccroan wow absolute certainty and were waiting, the sarcastic and arrogant tone is overwhelming. First, there have already been two letters that correct all of your “facts” by two of our union leaders. Second, 200,000 extra people, as stated before is enough to shut down the post office if all retired tomorrow, even the usps says maybe 50k people. third calling this a bailout is just ignorant and ignoring the facts, it is an obligation that has been proven to have been over paid by 75 billion, by the postal service, the oig and another independent party, so that is clearly wrong, also it is a payment no other federal agency or business outside of the government has to pay, so to mislead americans in a national newspaper by calling it such is incredibly disappointing. Also, 2 of the past 3 years the usps would
have made a profit, despite the falling mail volume, so lets concentrate on fixing the overpayment and leave the anti union rhetoric and talk of a bailout that is not a bailout out of it, and stop misleading the public. i hope a previous comment i saw on here of if your looking for answers you wont find them here is not correct, also i await a reply that is honest and not cutting and sarcastic. Because your absolute certainty is obviously flawed. Also Mr issa is more than welcome to visit a plant
and see what actually happens and see how much work and how much dedication it actually takes to sort and deliver mail, maybe then he will come out from behind his desk and “facts” to actually have an opinion based on reality.
13 hours ago · Flag

Darrell Issa Joshua,
Do you have links to those letters you could share so we know what points your union leaders made? We apologize for getting our hackles up…we re-read your post and ours and think we both could’ve done a better job. Truce?

What we can address (without seeing your union boss’ replies)…

The overpayment is a myth dependent on changing the law to conjure up an overpayment through backdoor accounting. Twice, Congress has passed and the President has signed laws that clearly define the retirement benefits obligations of the federal government and the USPS. It was not until the USPS began facing its current fiscal crisis (due to declining revenue from a world-wide move to electronic over “hard” mail communications and the USPS’ extremely high fixed costs…labor amounts to a full 80% of the USPS budget) that it began working with Congressional allies to reverse both laws and create an overpayment out of thin air. The OIG report is, in fact, based upon this change in the law to get its outcome…that is, if the law stays as it is today, the OIG report is not worth much if anything. This is the bailout: changing the law to raid federal retiree pensions to bail out the USPS of its legal obligations.

The USPS is clearly in crisis. We work with postal workers and their representatives on an almost daily basis and we know that many are hard-working; however, because of declining use of mail and rigidly high labor costs (see above), the USPS lost $5.3 billion in 2007, $2.8 billion in 2008 and $3.8 billion in 2009…and Congress allowed the USPS to defer on its legally-obligated health benefits payments last year to the tune of $4 billion.

The USPS must adjust its business model to the realities of declining demand for its services. A big part of that is cutting its workforce and renegotiating its union contracts, from no-layoff clauses to collective bargaining agreements that prevent workers from working outside their respective crafts and unusually generous benefits. For example, federal employees currently pay 27% of health care premiums and 67% of life insurance premiums…USPS workers only pay 17% and 0%
respectively.

We love the USPS, but it’s tough love borne of an honest study of today’s supply-and-demand for USPS services. We must fix these structural problems today and cannot support any legislation or policy ideas that rest upon the American taxpayers covering even more USPS financial shortfalls.

Thanks,
Team Issa
3 hours ago · Flag

Download a screen print of the thread made prior to its deletion

BringThemHomeNow.com

There’s nothing absurd or inconsistent here- its just a case of two agencies with two different sets of interests. The postal service needs carriers, but the fact is that there are plenty of people eager to get a job at the PO, so the service can be choosy about whom it hires. (Don’t forget- the USPS didn’t say it wouldn’t hire Lyon- it just wouldn’t hire him as a carrier.)

The military, on the other hand, doesn’t have the luxury of picking and choosing amongst potential ‘employees’- the war in Iraq has made it so difficult to get recruits that the Defense Department has had to scramble to lower its standards and increase its incentives to get people to enlist. Which of course, is also how National Guardsmen like Lyon ended up in Iraq in the first place. Of course the military is ready to send Lyon back to Iraq!

Editorial: Postal Service sends bad news