WHAT WE SPEND FOR THE POST OFFICE

• The Post Office has borrowed $10BILLION from the US Treasury (which in turn has to borrow to provide this money) , and it looks like the Post Office will borrow another $3 BILLION this year

• We pay 42 cents for a stamp and that likely will be increased this year if Postmaster General Potter has his way

*** We think the Post Office should be LOWERING its postage fees and should be paying back the money it owes Uncle Sam; here’s how:

Reduce Expenses

1) Eliminate Saturday deliveries and close most Post Offices on Saturdays

2) Reform Pensions (more unions are agreeing to this rather than moving to retirement plans)

3) Eliminate some post offices where possible (a study conducted by the Post Office found too many in some suburban areas)

4) Stop buying the houses of executives who must relocate (the Post Office overpays and loses millions)

Increase Revenue

1) Allow advertising on stamps

2) Charge a premium for stamps without ads like “love” stamps

3) Allow the Post Office to sell more items as they do in Europe (example: cell phones)

• IN OTHER WORDS, LET THE POST OFFICE RUN ITSELF LIKE A BUSINESS WITHOUT HAVING CONGRESS MEDDLE AND MICROMANAGE

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

LET’S LOOK AT:
WHAT CONGRESS SPENDS ON ITSELF

Specifically:

1) Pensions

2) Salaries

3) Travel Expenses

4) District Offices

5) Earmarks

6) Pork

• While the politicians are looking to cut our entitlements, they have been raising their own “entitlements”
  

1) Pensions should be ended for all new Members of Congress and staff. Pensions for current and already retired Members and staff must be reformed.

For example: For current Members and staff:

1) raise age of eligibility to 67
2) require at least 10 years of work in Congress in order to receive a pension
3) Deny receipt of a pension if person has not contributed at least 20% of his/her own salary to the pension each year
4) Deny receipt of pension money if a person is convicted of a felony

5) Right to receive the pension should cease with the death of the pension holder

• Congress gets an automatic raise every year unless they vote to deny themselves those raises

2) All Congressional salaries should be cut immediately by at least 1/3 and automatic raises repealed (Congress should be happy that they still have a job unlike most Americans who either lost a job or had their salaries substantially lowered thanks in large part to the failure of Congress to provide the oversight that we pay them to perform)

• While we were counting our pennies in order to put food on the table, Members of Congress have continued taking trips around the world at a huge cost to taxpayers as if the recession did not affect them

For example: as reported by the news media, Speaker Pelosi led a large group of House Members plus spouses and children to the Copenhagen Climate Conference. They flew there and back on three military planes at a cost of ~$170k (plus some flew on commercial airlines at an undisclosed cost) with an untold number of hotel rooms and probably thousands of meals also paid for by taxpayers

3) ALL TRIPS TAKEN BY CONGRESS SHOULD BE FOR THE MEMBERS ONLY, FLYING ON COMMERCIAL AIRPLANES WITH A PER DIEM RATE FOR HOTEL AND MEALS

• Members get a multi-million dollar budget for district offices in addition to their Washington offices. These are mainly used for campaigns during elections

4) THE OPERATION & MAINTENANCE OF DISTRICT OFFICES ARE EXPENSIVE AND SHOULD BE ELIMINATED

• Earmarks cost ~$16Billion last year. These are used by Members of Congress to thank their campaign donors at taxpayers’ expense

5) ALL EARMARKS TO A COMPANY OR INDIVIDUAL SHOULD BE FORBIDDEN

(Note:) The House recently voted to ban earmarks . . . but the bill limits this ban to “for-profit companies.” According to the media, companies are now setting up “non-profit affiliates” to avoid this ban.

• Public companies are prohibited by law from paying bribes but Congress bribes Members to vote on legislation costing taxpayers a huge amount of money

6) ALL INDUCEMENTS OF ANY KIND TO GET SOMEONE TO VOTE FOR OR AGAINST A BILL SHOULD BE ILLEGAL, PUNISHABLE BY A STIFF PENALTY SUCH AS BEING EXPELLED FROM CONGRESS

* * *

Members of Congress seem to regard themselves as royalty, but even the Queen of England is dramatically cutting back on expenses paid for by the public treasury.

We look forward to working with you to achieve our goal of fiscal responsibility while at the same time spurring growth in our economy. Please give us comments/feedback on today’s Blog and let us know about other Congressional expenditures that should be reined in.

Best regards,

CZ, Chairman of the Peoples Commission