2011 September 12 - postalnews blog

Archive for September 12th, 2011

Issa would force postal workers to retire

Forget about retirement incentives- according to the Hill, Representative Darrell Issa wants to “require” eligible employees to retire, regardless of whether or not they can afford to:

The House Oversight Committee chairman said Monday that a slew of postal workers should be retired, and while the Postal Service has “more than a small cash-flow problem,” it can be returned to solvency.

“This is an organization that can be profitable, that can meet all of its responsibilities,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

And requiring workers to retire, if eligible, would go a long way toward reducing payroll pressure, he said.

via Issa: Time to ‘right-size’ the Postal Service workforce – The Hill’s On The Money.

Democrats introduce totally irrelevant bill on postal finances

House Democrats today introduced a bill to postpone for 90 days the required $5.5 billion trust fund payment due September 30 under the 2006 PAEA law. While the congressmen say that the bill would “give Congress an additional three months to consider ways to ensure that the Postal Service is profitable and competitive in the 21st century economy.”, the bill would really change nothing, since it is well known that the USPS is unable to make the payment anyway. The Postmaster General announced months ago that the USPS would not be making the payment, and has said that the USPS has enough cash to keep running until next summer.

So all the Democrats’ bill would accomplish would be to remove the possibility of a technical default on the trust fund payment. It would have no impact whatsoever on the postal service’s finances or its future viability.

So what exactly is the point?
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