Quantcast
Channel: The Local View » Budgets
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 5

Any doubt our congress is NOT serious about cutting spending? Saturday Postal Deliver forced to continue

0
0
They were Handed $2,000,000,000 a year (thats BILLIONS)….
By a service that said we can’t spend it wisely….
Then Congress FORCED them to spend it anyway.

The US Postal Service wants stop Saturday delivery.  as it was costing too much money. USA TODAY

I don’t know about you, but on a good day, any day of the week, my mail is hardly worth the short walk out to the curb. By the time I get to the house, I’ve deposited most of it in the recycle bin. I don’t need to do this on Saturdays. Many Saturdays, I don’t. The junk sits in the box until Monday… or Tuesday.

As for going to the post office on Saturday, pick another day. If that is not possible (really not possible), then lets charge a premium for everyone who goes there on Saturday – $2B worth.

Congress intervenes to save us from… saving.

And for the privilege of being able to continue to do this on Saturdays, we get to spend waste $2,000,000,000 a year.

“A measure passed by Congress last month to fund government operations while the budget remains in limbo included language that barred changing the delivery schedule, “  - USA TODAY

Once again, our brave friends on the Hill sneak this into a bill that is needed to keep funding for the rest of the Government. Even if a congressman did not write this section of the Bill, they should be calling it out (loudly)  as a fundamental waste of our resources and chastising the authors.

 It’s quite clear that special-interest lobbying and intense political pressure played a much greater role in the Postal Service’s change of heart than any real or perceived barrier to implementing what had been announced.

 –Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif

Here is a quote I really like (not):

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the ranking Democrat on the committee, said the Postal Service must abide by the law, but Congress should pass legislation to allow it to revamp services and become profitable. Cummings introduced a bill last year that would give the Postal Service more flexibility to change its business model, but the House did not take up the measure.

– USA TODAY

The sad thing is, the postal service did not need a special bill to make this change. They had the authority to do it (the right thing), and Congress just passed legislation to take the authority away. Leave it to Congress to suggest that the solution to creating bad bureaucracy is to create even more bureaucracy. Just don’t do it in the first place. I would say this is just institutional stupidity, but that would relieve the individuals of the responsibility to do what we sent them there to do.

Influence and Special interest… preserve what you don’t (directly) pay for.

There are some who want to position this as an ‘anti-labor’ position like this in the Daily Kos. It is not. The post office is losing $16B a year. For those arguing that it is a great value service, that is because they are not actually, directly paying of it. It is subsidized by the tax payers. If we were paying the full tab directly, then I might be sensitive to these arguments. But we are not. Pay what the service actually costs, and then talk to me about value. Until then, stop asking me to subsidize your unwillingness to wait until Monday to get your mail, or you inability to get to the post office Mon-Fri.

Congress needs to take Responsibility… we need to push them

It is amazing to me that Congressmen blames bureaucrats, special interests, ‘politics’, etc for the fiscal problems. They had an opportunity to DO NOTHING, and allow the right thing to happen, and then went out of their way to DO THE WRONG THING, and waste $2,000,000,00.

This shows that congress is not impotent. They quickly moved to SPEND $2B. They choose to do the wrong things, and do them fast. Perhaps, with enough pressure, they may put the ability to do things to good use.

Let your representative know that if they want to raise our taxes, or cut back on needed services, they had better start with the stuff that is handed to them.

Find your Reps: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

For my area its:

Brad Schneider   @RepSchneider

317 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
phone: 202-225-4835
hours: M-F 9-5:30pm

or

111 Barclay Boulevard
Suite 200
Lincolnshire, IL 60069
phone: 847-793-0625
hours: M-F 9-5:30pm

 

Randy Hultgren  @RepHultgren

WASHINGTON, D.C. Office
332 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2976
Fax: (202) 225-0697

OR

Geneva Office

1797 W. State Street Suite A
Geneva, IL 60134
Phone: (630) 232-7104
Fax: (630) 232-7174

Senators:

Durbin, Richard J. – (D – IL)     @SenatorDurbin

711 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2152
Contact: www.durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contac
 

Kirk, Mark – (R – IL)     @SenatorKirk

524 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2854
Contact: www.kirk.senate.gov/?p=contact

Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 5

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images