Congressman Dennis Ross attempts to clear up the whole issue about USPS overpayments. After reading statements from politicians, unions and employees on the postal reform bill, the real showdown may come down to America and Issa/Ross duo.
Myth: The Postal Service has overpaid by $50-$75 billion into the Civil Service Retirement System and Congress owes this money back.
Fact: There is no Postal Service overpayment. In 1974, the Postal Service agreed to a formula to share the retiree costs of individuals who worked for both the Post Office Department and the Postal Service (which replaced the Department in 1971). Now, more than 40 years later, the Postal Service argues that that formula is unfair. The Postal Service argues that if a formula it considers to be fair had been used instead, than it would be owed $50-$75 billion by the US Treasury. This is an attempt to rewrite history. The original formula was instituted as part of a broader set of decisions concerning the creation of USPS. For instance, those decisions included not charging any fee to USPS in return for the postal monopoly it was granted. Another reason why it makes little sense to speak of an overpayment due to USPS is that the Postal Service had a clear requirement from 1971 until 2006 to raise postage rates to cover all costs, including its cost of retirement funding. If a different formula had been used all these years that had resulted in lower annual payments by USPS for its federal employee retirement costs, those savings would have been used to lower the cost of postage rates.
Myth: The Postal Service is unfairly saddled with an annual $5.5 billion retiree health care prefunding payment that is required of no other federal agency. If only the prefunding requirement were eliminated the Postal Service would be profitable again.
Fact: If the Postal Service were allowed to immediately cease prefunding of its retiree health care obligations, it would have an unfunded liability of nearly $100 billion by 2017. This would clearly be an unaffordable burden for an entity whose core business and revenue is steadily shrinking. It would likely result in a taxpayer funded bailout of postal workers’ retiree health care payments. USPS is under its statutory prefunding requirement because – although it was created to be a self-sustaining entity – taxpayers stand behind the large and growing retiree health care liability. Its also important to note that the annual deficit of the Postal Service now easily exceeds its entire annual prefunding payment, illustrating its fiscal problems run much deeper.
Myth: The Postal Service has a FERS surplus of $6.9 billion that should be immediately returned.
Fact: The Postal Service, in addition to a number of other federal agencies, has a temporary, projected surplus because interest rates have been at historically low rates. Once interest rates inevitably begin to rise, that projected surplus may melt away leaving the Postal Service with a deficit it can ill afford to pay back. Other federal agencies with temporary surpluses are not being granted refunds for “overpayments” as a result of these fluctuating balances.
Well Chamberlain,
First let me apologize that every manager you ever had sucked. But saying that every manager sucks would be like a manager saying every employee sucks. That’s just not true. I didn’t come from a big office but after getting screwed time and time again I decided that I would make a difference. If there is only one office out there with a manager who cares about both their people and the postal service then it must be mine. DO I have to discipline my employees occasionally? Yes. Do I understand that we are all human and make mistakes? Yes. I might agree with you that I am Stupid though. I went from only being responsible for what I did, to now making sure that all my employees do their job correctly every time every day.. Gotta whole buck an hour raise first few years..During that time crafts COLA’s over took me.. In a office with 4 clerks 10 carriers and I make 5 o 6 grand less but have all the responsibility and ocasionally had to hear about people complaining about their pay. You don’t like your boss?? Change the situation, transfer or better yet STEP UP make a difference in your office, become a 204b or supervisor if your haven’t try it. Only takes a week for you to unserstand what kind of pressure is put on them. oh yes..I know that there are MANY PMs and Supervisors that probasbly shouldn’t even be in the organization beause they are not competant at their job only way I found that I could change it was to become one and be better than they were and not let them treat anyone else like they treated me.
Well spoken Mojo
JP, you are one f**king liar. EVERY person I worked with in craft that went into Postal “Management”, was lazy and/or stupid. That is why you f**kers are attracted to Postal “Management”. You didn’t do a f**king thing in craft, you liar. You would be the one exception I’ve seen in 31 years, you f**king a**hole.
ps all Postal “Managers” are liars too.
@ tuna
If people showed up everyday and if they did their job correctly you would no need so many managers you are right. BUt if a carrier delivers mail incorrectly to the same address 3 times a week and it take me 2 years to fire him how is that managements fault? I can hold their hand in the office, I can label the case, I can put in a misdelivery notice card in the mail slot, I can label the box with bright colors to identify it but yet I still have misdeliveries to a particular resident.. You want me to be an effective manager? Let me hire a person of my choosing who I can feel will perform the task up to the expected ability and allow me to get rid of a slug, Eventually you will have people who can and will do the job without managers then you won’t need them. Oh yeah, I was a clerk before I got into management and last week i ended up carrying mail and completed my carriers 8 1/4 hour route in 6 hours with no misdeliveries. Not really a tough job. Some days will make you earn a paycheck other days your are skating..
MR Ross,
Fact- Only reason the postal service was required to prefund those benfits beginning in 2006 is because they had a Surplus.
Fact- @ 6.5 billion a year how does that add up to 100 Billion dollars by the year 2017?
When the postal service had a Surplus in years past where did that money go? If you eliminate the postal service in it’s current form and there is a national emergency that interrupts communication Email, phone service etc as we know it there will be NO way to provide information to the general public. The elimination of rural post offices hinders the ability to communicate in emergencies. You want the postal service to be successful? Allow them to charge 1.00 a stamp. Within 1 year the whole $ issue is solved. Congress stands in the way requiring the rate that the postal service can charge. Don’t knock the postal service try and come up with a common sense solution.
Oh and if congress will not allow the Postal service to raise rates to overcome the situation that they are in wouldn’t it make sense that congress has some responsibility to help sustain them?
Many postal employees are extremely didcated and hardworking americans who actually have sacrificed other jobs as the feel that they are giving something to the community, they do this for the sense of pride and the paycheck. They do not get tips, no christmas bonuses, on very rare occasions do they any type of performance bonuses. If you consider changing the postal service consider allowing gratuity to be given to the employee, offer a performance incentive that relates directly to job performance use your posiition in CONGRESS to improve a system that has faithfully served you, you family for generations. Ask a serviceman how they feel about receiving letters from home, you eliminate the mail service as you know it you will destroy this country. Be a solution not an additional problem.
Dave- managment cannot manage productively because there are TOO MANY MANAGEMENT?SUPPORT jobs, so all they do is kiss each other’s asses and whine about clerk/carrier work ethic. TOO FUCKING FUNNY-they don’t even know what ethics is in any context.
I had never read the opposing view to the USPS’s and it’s Unions opinion on these matters. I am grateful for the opportunity to read another educated viewpoint. I think that the answer lies somewhere between the rhetoric of the socialists and the tea-party. Ultimately though, change will come…some will be displeased, some will be pleased but all will learn to live with it…or quit and find another occupation.
Really…All these comments about be dumb? Get your heads out of the sand. The Postal Service is dying. Why? Any number of reasons, mismanagement, labor unions or prefunding take your pick.
Here’s the facts:
The labor unions have a strangle hold on managements ability to manage productively. This clerk can’t move a tray of mail twenty feet because that’s mail handler work. If there were 1 labor union in the postal service maybe there would be the flexibility needed to efficiently move the mail.
I read about striking…Are you kidding? That would take care of all the excessing that is going on. Think Air Traffic Controllers!
it is wonderful to listen to liberals whine .. the ride is coming to a close and you worry because you are tooooo fucking stupid to do anything else .fact. we are losing our ass because we are a dinosaur and teck is killing the business. if you are young in the p.o. go back to school. for those of us who are close to retirement get out of debt save give up the caddy and drugs . stop crying and do something before it is too late ps i cannot believe some of the crap you believe . oh yea the union is going to save us .. cfs
Jack Potter you & Issa are a couple of dumb asses!!!
We good family values conservatives hate unions cause they are all commie. Good Corporate Capitalism is America and freedom. At least for all us rich guys!!
republicans will find any way possible of killing unions and by doing so reduce the middle class working population. they are so stupid, who does he think will pay the taxes if they kill all the unions. 50% of the country doesn’t pay taxes and the rich get big tax breaks.
lets start with campaign reform. tell us who are your big contributors. who is pulling your dummy strings?
John what a well thought out TRUE FACTUAL COMMENT!!!! I for one am so tired of listening to all of the bull____ from the Republicans and the Tea Party!!! They keep this up and the whole country will be unemployed EXCEPT FOR THE RICH!!!!
FACT Issa n Ross are out of their Coruppt minds
MYTH Carriers are NOT overpaid
FACT If the NALC stops asking for 5 dollars to pay off people like Issa
and Ross and uses the money to FIGHT these idiots, Maybe we’ll
have some actual support
MYTH Carriers are not overpaid
FACT If Congress would just look at the structure of the PO, they will see
that Management and their useless ideas, large pay checks and
bonuses, and overall stupidity can be resolved by getting rid of
them and capping the highest Management salary at 100k with
NO BONUS 75% of Management can be let go and probably
save 20 mil a year. Let them go try to find a job, THEY will never
survive in the real world
MYTH Carriers are not overpaid,, ask a suit to run around in this weather
like they try to demand
FACT Management doesn’t give a flying shit about the customer or
service. All they care about is their bonus and their inflated pay
checks.
Rep. Assa, excuse me, Issa, and Rep. Ross must have lost some important lobbyists money in the mail. Otherwise they wouldn’t be so much anti-USPS.
A Union man NEVER votes republican.
Not as likely as a Teabagger like Ross being right about anything!
Rules of life…People are stupid…. People will believe lies planted deceptively by others and then fight for the cause, even to death for that lie.
Is it possible the USPS and the unions have both been lying about the “overpayments”?
Hey, you politicians are in that bowl grabbing out of every fund you can !!
YOU have started taking from the TSP G-fund, what Next???
Your nothing but a bunch of thieves & liars in my eyes.
YOU all need to be replaced!!!!
You don’t represent anyone “Except Yourself s” pretty plain and Simple.
And I’m no rocket scientist, but have common sense to see what you’ll are doing !!
AND I VOTE EACH AND EVERY ELECTION!!
I don”t know but I think they threw the baby out
and kept the afterbirth.
Who in the world gave birth to Issa and Ross?????
One of the Biggest Liers I have ever seen!Issa,I really think the time for you to leave office has come because there is no way that your brain is completely functioning!And Mr uncommon sense and others,the post office hasn’t received tax payer money for over 30 years and will not receive any!The money they want is theirs and if they overpayed they have the right to a refund.Do some research before you comment and not read nonsense like this article.
Myth- The taspayer will end up paying for USPS retiree healthcare benefits if the prefunding requirement is removed.
Fact- Taxpayers already pay Billions every year to private companies as subsidies if they provide retirees a retirement benefit like the USPS’s. Taxpayers pay nothing to the USPS for providing this benefit to its retirees.
(part of medicare part D law)
ANSWER ME THIS!!!……When will ISSA & his Congress buddies, be put up to the SAME “Sacrifices” that they seem to want to throw at the lower Classes…….Its time to cut pay & pension, and medical for CONGRESS too….. like the “private sector” has RIGHT?…..Sacrifices for everyone RIGHT?…………..yeah right, and the beat goes on.
Strike if Issa’s legislation is passed. Show this wealthy child consequences for his actions.
Mr Ross is pre-funding is such a good idea why aren’t congress and other agencies required to prefund thier health care costs. The benefits offered by the postal service are a requirement of the federal plan, the postal service can not offer lower benefits for future employees unless they are allow to withdraw from the FEHBP. It is a fact that the Postal Service contributions to FEHBP subsidizes the contributions from other agencies and if the Postal Service withdrew from the plan that the premiums for other Feds would rise.
Mr Ross please publish the report that supports your claim below: What assumptions are you making? If you and your fellow members of congress actual did something to lower healthcare costs, then the Postal Service and the whole country would not be in this mess.
Fact: If the Postal Service were allowed to immediately cease prefunding of its retiree health care obligations, it would have an unfunded liability of nearly $100 billion by 2017.
I could write a long reply but quite frankly Ross and Issa just aren’t worth it. Republicans Suck!!!!!!!!!!
“Jackson” is another misinformed and low information “citizen”.
These low information types consistently come up with references to “taxpayers” when referencing USPS problems.
“TAXPAYERS” DO NOT FUND THE USPS…”RATEPAYERS” FUND THE USPS.
This is a concept that “Jackson” and all of the other REPUBLICAN FOOLS cannot
seem to understand.
Dennis Ross is a FRESHMAN TEA BAGGER from Florida that has openly, during hearings, admitted that he DOES NOT KNOW MUCH about the USPS…and his ignorance continues right up until today…Darrell Issa’s “ignorance” however is a planned agenda that he continues to foist on the MAILING PUBLIC and the Citizens of America. Issa and his CRONIES continue to PUSH A CONSERVATIVE “PRIVATIZATION” AGENDA with EVERYTHING THEY DO.
I know someone whose going to lose their seat next year ~
Jackson, you’re as clueless as your Fake News Masters. Teabagger Ross is a f#$lomg liar and an idiot. In 2005 before Postal “Reform” and the pre-payment, the USPS had NO DEBT, YOU CLOWN!
P.S. Another sign you have Fake News sh*t memorized is the fact that taxpayers paying tax have nothing to do with the PO.
Bunch of dumbass petrified brainless right wing god fearing ignorant christian bastards. Issa and ross should just resign their jobs for being stupid. Talk about dumb.
Have any of you postal automotons read the OPM report? It clearly states your overpayment is exactly as Issa and Ross and others say. It is a myth. I love watching my former colleagues whine and whine. Just like they have been doing for 50 years. The USPS is busted. Its over. The gravy train is gone and the taxpayers are tired of it.
Representative Ross, I challenge everything you have stated. You sir, are a liar and do not know what you are talking about. You would have us believe the USPS Office of Inspector General are liars, you would have us believe the independent auditor hired by the Postal Regulatory Commission are liars. Everyone is a liar EXCEPT for Representative Ross. Well sir, you are the fabricator and liar who should resign from office for being such a fabricator of lies.
Representative Ross, I understand you are not very smart when it comes to something being overfunded because even at this point you and your republican fools in Congress are willing to let the entire country go down the drain because you want to beat Obama, because you do not want taxes to increase on the rich. Well I for one would rather there be an increase in taxes than for you to put the mess started by Bush on the backs of the poor and middle class. You are attacking postal workers, who will be next? Senior citizens when you do away with medicare. Your agenda has become clear, bail out the rich big businesses, and leave the USPS to sink. Yeah, Sir, you have shown your TRUE colors…LIAR.
The Office of Inspector general and one other auditing agency determined the over-payments. And a politician thinks the public will believe him? Hubris.
Ross-another right-wing “Christian” that ignores “Thou shall not bear false witness”
for personal political gain. God will take care of his kind.
The original forcast for the old PO was a employee compliment of approx.1,000,000. After the collapse of the US economy, the PO has cut employees through attrition, not through layoffs to a level of 550,000. As the compliment decreases the costs also decrease. Congress and the Senate are dragging their feet since this problem was first brought to committee in Aug 2009. If the PO pays the 5+ billion each year for retiree health care, there is an estimated 100 to 114 billion in that account. Estimates are that it will generate 8 to 12 billion each year in interest. What will happen to that revenue? Go to the C-Span Video Library, Aug.6, 2009 and watch ” The Financial State of U.S. Postal Service” Some eye opening info.
ACTUAL FACT
Higher interest rates increase pension surpluses.
Exactly the opposite of Mr. Ross’s claim.
issa and ross both left their brains in their mommas womb…..\\
they can sure twist and lie their way….
lets hope 2012 will be the last of them////
register and vote…..
postal employees are overpaid. cut their salaries by 50%