A Not So Sneaky Attack

Trey Smith

Over the past few months, I've written several times about the corporate and government initiative to do away with the US Postal Service (USPS). As Matt Taibbi wrote on Monday, the scare tactics being utilized today were set in motion nearly 6 years ago.

In 2006, in what looks like an attempt to bust the Postal Workers' Union, George Bush signed into law the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. This law required the Postal Service to pre-fund 100 percent of its entire future obligations for 75 years of health benefits to its employees – and not only do it, but do it within ten years. No other organization, public or private, has to pre-fund 100 percent of its future health benefits.

"No one prefunds at more than 30 percent," Anthony Vegliante, the U.S. Postal Service's executive vice president, told reporters last year.

The new law forced the postal service to come up with about $5.5 billion a year for the ten years following the bill's passage. In 2006, before those payments kicked in, the USPS generated a small profit. Not surprisingly, the USPS is now basically broke.

So, Step #1 was to make it all but certain that the USPS would wind up in the red in subsequent years. However, as Taibbi continues, that's not the only nefarious strategy Congress employed.

The 2006 law also bars the Postal Service from offering "nonpostal services," which means the USPS can't, say, open up a bank, or an internet cafe, or come up with any new entrepreneurial ideas to generate new income, as postal services do in other countries.

In one fell swoop, Congress insured that, not only would the USPS hemorrhage revenue at an alarming rate, but it would be prevented from devising strategies to staunch the flow of monetary loss!

Why would Congress agree to a plan that insured that the USPS would go belly up? As usual, Taibbi doesn't mince words.

The transparent purpose of this law, which was pushed heavily by industry lobbyists, was to break a public sector union and privatize the mail industry. Before the 2006 act, the postal service did one thing, did it well, and, minus the need to generate profits and bonuses for executives, did it cheaply. It paid for itself and was not a burden to taxpayers.

At the time the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act was being discussed and debated in the halls of Congress, progressive activists and pundits pointed out that this bill would lead to a slow death of the USPS, but they were ridiculed as Chicken Littles. The proponents of the bill responded that it would make the USPS more competitive in an ever competitive world. Well, we can now see that it was the opponents, not the supporters, who were right!

This situation is just one of many object lessons for everyday citizens. When corporate lobbyists have their fingerprints all over legislation, you can rest assured that what they are proposing -- regardless of what they might say -- is not in the public's best interests. No, in almost every case, it's about fattening the corporate bottom line at the public's expense!