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BTW we are members of the Thrift Savings program which is very similar to the Soc. Security personal accounts that Bush is pushing for----THEY are terrific and if it (by a miracle) should pass, IMHO it would be a good thing for my kids and grandchildren....

But I'm sure the Carrier's union is opposing personal accounts...

They have NO say-so in that. All Federal employees, including military, are eligible for TSP accounts. The Unions would NEVER oppose them, because they make a great return on investment (except in 2001 and 2002 because of the burst of the stock market bubble) and their members would scream bloody murder (no pun intended!!) if they were eliminated.

The TSP accounts came into existence when the PO switched its employees from being covered by Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) to Federal Employment System (FERS). This happened around 1985, and if you were an employee and chose to switch to FERS, you were given the option of contributing to a TSP account, which was matched by the USPS--either 5 or 10%.

I was eligible to contribute to a TSP account, but there was no matching contrib by the USPS cuz I did not switch to FERS, but stayed under CSRS. FERS is really just a fancy name for Social Security, and lots of long-time employees did not want to switch from CSRS, because the retirement bennies weren't as good. My late husband, however, had no choice but to be under FERS (because he was hired after 1985)--and his TSP account grew at a fantastic rate, considering the small amount he put in each payday.

The TSP accounts can be borrowed against with relatively low interest rates, and they can be passed on to spouses. I can see no down side to them, and cannot understand why more people aren't urging President Bush to model private SS accounts after the TSP program.

You may be right about the carrier's union---

I don't know, because my husband doesn't belong to that union---

All of the unions have different contracts so, I can't tell you about that--

I believe another poster, Milagro (?) may be a letter carrier---he/she may be able to tell you..