Ross on CSRS overpayments, pre-funding: “Spare me…” - postalnews blog
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Ross on CSRS overpayments, pre-funding: “Spare me…”

Self-appointed postal “watchdog” Dennis Ross isn’t about to let the facts get in the way of his agenda. Tweeting about the Wall Street Journal’s already thoroughly debunked editorial attack on the postal service, Ross tells critics to “spare” him arguments about the pre-funding requirement that threatens to bankrupt the agency.

WSJ: The Coming Postal Bailout http://on.wsj.com/klsXmD | no bailout in the House. Major labor reform needed. Spare me pre funding argumentMay 15 via webDennis Ross
RepDennisRoss

Maybe Dennis should get in touch with fellow tea-bagger Ron Paul and verify which article in the Constitution authorizes Congress to require the USPS to pre-fund future retiree health benefits by the magical amount of $5.5 billion a year? We can’t seem to find it!

Dennis’s plea drew this reaction:

@RepDennisRoss: Major labour reform really means to undo all union agreements, reduce all pay rates and cut all benefits. ABSOLUTELY NOT!May 15 via webRobert C. Pickering
CentralFLEagle

To which Dennis replied:

@CentralFLEagle 80% of USPS costs are labor costs. 30-50% higher than most comparable businesses. Utterly unsustainable. Reform is comingMay 15 via Seesmic for AndroidDennis Ross
RepDennisRoss

Uh oh… maybe we started something here…

@RepDennisRoss Spare you the pre funding argument?! You mean spare you THE TRUTH?! USPS has been proven to be profitable without it, MORONMay 16 via webJesse Koleszar
J_K_1985

@J_K_1985 2010 USPS lost $8.5 bil. Prefunding was $5.5 bill. Hardly profitable. 1st class continue rapid decline while 80% of cost r laborMay 16 via Seesmic for AndroidDennis Ross
RepDennisRoss

So apparently the previous five years, when the pre-funding WAS the sole cause of USPS deficits don’t count? Or the almost forty years of breaking even? Or all of those non-union mailing industry employees that will be out of work if the USPS goes under? Not to mention:

@RepDennisRoss true loss was 500 million. Keep up the lies. Naturally, labor costs will be a majority of USPS expenses.May 16 via Twitter for AndroidJesse Koleszar
J_K_1985

@RepDennisRoss you really need to look at 5 day del. Cuts jobs, keep current wages and remove prefunding and it will work outMay 16 via Mobile WebShawn Anderson
ShawnAnderson72

@ShawnAnderson72 open to it. Union opposition is nearly universal.May 16 via Seesmic for AndroidDennis Ross
RepDennisRoss

Ah yes… it’s always the union’s fault, isn’t it?

More reactions:

@RepDennisRoss @J_K_1985 – One thing that seems to get forgotten is the USPS is a vital service. Just like police and fire.May 16 via webyakimadude
yakimadude

@RepDennisRoss @J_K_1985 The numbers can be spun anyway you want. The USPS goes broke trying to keep the retirees paid.May 16 via webyakimadude
yakimadude

@yakimadude @J_K_1985 the USPS goes broke because they refuse to adapt to the digital reality. Labor costs & facilities way out of line.May 16 via Seesmic for AndroidDennis Ross
RepDennisRoss

Twitter / @Dennis Ross: WSJ: The Coming Postal Bai ….

This entry was posted on Monday, May 16th, 2011 at 8:55 am and is filed under Dennis Ross, politics, postal, postal finances, right wing wackos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

  • John

    If it’s true that the truth will set you free, Dennis Ross is serving a life sentence.

  • joe tennessee

    i see ROSS runing his mouth and knows not what he is talking about, another person that has never worked a day in his life in the postal service.. he needs to work for the postal service and see the real postal service and s ee how messed up it is…

  • TruthSayer

    80 percent of USPS costs are labor — of which the prefunding is included. If you take out the prefunding, it’s more like 69 percent. Do the math

  • Dan Kelly

    Representative Ross – I suggest, no better yet, I challenge you to put the same outlandish and irresponsible requirements for operating the USPS onto Congress – do you think our country is being run into the ground by mismanagement? If you disagree then perhaps your constituency should reconsider how they cast their votes, since you are obviously detached from reality – why doesn’t Congress take a pay cut and have their benefits reduced every year the US is operating in the red – I can guarantee you once your term of service is over, if having qualified for a Congressional Pension, you will expect all the benefits thereof believing you are entitled to them(i.e. retirement and medical benefits for life). And if exigent circumstances require the reduction of or the elimination of those benefits and your pension you will be standing on the White House lawn with the rest of the congressional Millionaires Club squawking that it’s not fair…The profound impact your remarks will make on my livelihood guarantee me one thing – I will work until the day I die. There will be no retirement for many Americans if our country continues to be run by near sighted, institutional thinkers like you and your friend Representative Issa. I hope you reconsider your position and take the measures necessary to turn our economy around instead of making knee jerk remarks based on little or no fact that will make a decades long impact on how the public perceives what Postal employees make(rather than the real problem of political posturing). I am proud of my service…can you say the same?

  • What’s wrong w/80% for Labor?

    All this talk about 80% of USPS costs is for labor as if something is sinisterly wrong — what do private companies spend on actual ‘labor costs” if “stock options” for their top executives and managers, and shareholders payouts are included as labor expenses?

  • Dicksie Chick

    Ross is a moron. The prefunding is a money grab for congress use to make the national debt look smaller. They steal from it, as well as the G-Fund and Social Security. Ross and Issa rely on their inbred interns, who can’t do math, for their numbers. They hardly have the time to represent their constituents by sitting down and doing it for themselves.

  • Bigtruckerman

    From reading Ross’s e-mail he is English from England!!!

  • Diana

    80% is labor. Well gee…..since the Postal Service is just that….a SERVICE…why wouldn’t 80% be labor? The mail doesn’t move itself across the country….it doesn’t sort itself….it doesn’t deliver itself….labor does! Does Mr. Ross not want us to deliver all his Political Mail to every house…everyday. Would make my day easier and our trash load lighter!!!!!

  • Stephen

    Ross and his tea bag buddies are turds! They and those who believe similarly will destroy this great country. The GI Bill and UNIONS made the middle class, and now thirty years of Reaganomics and the Republicans are destroying it.

  • Stephen

    I saw a bumper sticker the other day… it read Religion – it’s what keeps the poor from murdering the rich. The Republican party has for thirty years started a war on working women and men. It’s sad that some of those working folks are brain washed by right wing talking points. Wake up the Republicans want your jobs, your retirement monies, your healthcare, and they want you on the street. Wake up America.

  • Gregg

    And so it contiues.When will all this foolishness end,so something can be done about the serious problem the USPS faces in the near future? Dicksie chick is SPOT ON!!Ross is a moron.He should not have been appointed to this commitee in the first place.Reason #1-He’s a freshman.Reason # 2-He knows absolutly nothing about the Postal Service.Reason #3-He’s a moron.Sorry Dennis,three strikes,your out!!But you go ahead and keep messin with us Postal Workers.It might come back to haunt you someday.Like at re-election time!!

  • jimmy

    When the USPS was inaugurated by none other than President Richard Nixon, the labor rate was 85 percent. That is a good 5 percent less cost today. So what;s the problem other than a headline for an unknowledgable legislator

  • Gloria Boham

    Who is this nut? He thinks we are making to much and that we did not deserve it. As a retiree, I am not living high on the hog, I can hardly make ends meet each month with what I am getting, infact I had to go out and get another job just to eat. He had better get into the system and find out that it is not all fun and games, when it comes to lifting heavy bags, or even dumping 55 gal. drums of trash. He has his head in the sand.

  • Ralf

    Sounds to me like Ross has the facts. I am a TeaBagging 28 years Union man. 80% is Labor costs. Now those labor costs include 85 thousand Postmasters/more Area, DMs and VPs. All of which are yes men for even more useless individuals making 2-3X more than the average WORKING (hands on) Postal employee. We have to cut overhead to survive. Get back to basics of delivering the mail, and rid ourselves of Administrative fluff………….

  • Rich

    The first thing that needs to be done here is that President Obama needs to remove Rep. Ross from the committee that he serves on and replace him with a moderate or a Democrat. President Obama has the right and power to do that right now. I urge everyone concerned with Rep. Ross to contact your legislatures and ask them to support a removal of Rep. Ross. From the hearing on Postal issues to the hearing of the APWU USPS Tentative Ageement it is very obvious setting aside Mr Ross’s hatred for the middle class that he truly does not understand the Postal Service and how it operates. He doesn’t care about the success of the Postal Service or it’s employees. Everything that he speaks on these issues is pure downgrading to the Postal Service and its employees. The President should remove him immediately and the constituents of his District should really be made aware of his utter disdain and manipulative destruction of the most admired government institution by the people for the people, the United States Postal Service.

  • Lawson Wilcox

    The Postal service provides a SERVICE not a product! 80% labor cost is for a service not a product! When a business proivides a service, naturally their highest cost will be labor. Some one please explain this to ross.

  • mike

    im tired of wasting my breath off this man that does not live in reality. So i am only going to comment on his belief that postal workers make so much more than its competition. you might want to get the facts and ask your man in brown called UPS what they make per an hour and you will find postal workers make far LESS than that compareative company. i have several family members that work for UPS and their wages put USPS wages to SHAME with the teamsters. so shut up and get the facts straight. WE DONT GET TAXPAYER SUBSIDYS SO WTF DO YOU CARE ANYWAYS GET OUT OF OUR BUSINESS. politicians have screwed enough things up already stop trying to totally destroy america incase you havent heard bin laden is dead .

  • TZACK

    A shout out to Ross. Why don’t you come get your little buddy Mr Walker and you two along with the big dipper Issa and get one way tickets to Iran and you can plead your idiot ideas over there. This WI APWU President says to take a long walk off a short pier. You haven’t got a clue as to how we work and our earnings comparible to others. You listen to a bunch of BS and make judgements that are totally inaccurate. Perhaps you should go back to college for ten or twelve years. Don’t worry, you and your buddies will all be ousted soon enough. Later Big Shot!

  • bubba

    first of all ross your an idiot!!!!second you work for me the taxpayer i pay your salary!!!!!!!!!!RECALL ROSS!!!all ross is doing is wasting taxpayer money stop prefunding and the usps will be just fine also cut ross pay in half a monkey could do his job cut ross benefits in half 50000 cap on his salary

  • Bigwheel

    THIS IS THE KIND OF REPRESENTATION YOU GET WHEN YOU VOTE FOR REPUBLICANS.

    They don’t give a hill of beans about the working people of America.