In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Playing Post Office" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/10/opinion/collins-playing-post-office.html?_r=0), Gail Collins explains how to remedy the US Postal Service's $15 billion annual deficit. She tells us that by eliminating Saturday deliveries, some $2 billion can be saved, and then goes on to say:
"Next stop, retirees. The Postal Service is supposed to deposit $5.5 billion a year in order to fund future retirees’ health benefits 75 years in advance. This was an idea cooked up on a dark day during the Bush administration, possibly by Congressional conferees armed with eyes of newt and toe of frog. Almost everybody now agrees it went way overboard. Also, there is no earthly way the Postal Service can afford to do it. Either Congress is going to have to give up on the idea or allow the entire operation to implode. So the mission is pretty clear. Discontinue the $5.5 billion deposits and get the accountants to work out a new plan.
Wow, you’ve cut that $16 billion deficit in half! Move over, Paul Ryan."
Yeah, right. Postal Service employees are just going to roll over and play dead as all of their retiree health benefits are eliminated, especially after their Saturday pay is nixed.
Tell me, is this idea any dumber than Paul Krugman's proposal to mint a trillion dollar platinum coin (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2013/01/paul-krugman-dwindling-deficit-unicorn.html)? Probably not.
Maybe Gail should be a awarded a Nobel Prize in economics for this Saturday morning attack of flatulence.
The worst part about Congress forcing the USPS to fund that 5BILUSD/year is that Congress then put it in general revenue, just like they did with the Social Security surpluses generated by tax increases in the 1980's to cover the big Boomer retirement wave of today.
ReplyDeleteClinton commingled those SS surpluses to make it appear as if the Federal gov was in 'surplus'.
All the retirees have now is an IOU.
The USPS is IN the Constitution, and it should never have become an accounting hoax.
Just like Cheney's 2001 & 2003 tax cuts were a hoax, because those 'surpluses' were fake.
of course, at this point, what difference does it make?