Liberal Democrats: Higher rates for wealthy 'just the beginning'

The Hill ^ | 11-30

[Arthurio]

A group of House Democrats has formed its own “Gang of Six” to push for progressive tax reform — in which the expiration of the Bush-era tax rates for the wealthiest Americans is “just the beginning.”

[Monorprise]

““I say, replace McConnell with Paul, and Boner with Newt (Speaker doesn’t have to be a CongressCritter.”

I like Newt as Speaker just because it would shift the paradigm, and Obama admin would be stunned.

But right now McConnell and Boehner are doing fine.”

If they were doing fine we would not have stolen defeat from the jaws of victory in the 2012 election. They would not have caved before the democrats lies in the 2011 budget debates.

If the left dominate the information distribution systems then the only way to prove a point is to do it. If they want to play chicken with shutting down the Government then shut down the government! Let people see the truth with their own eyes that it is NOT anarchy, nor even a real shutdown.

But instead a nessary mesure to impose some level of fisicial discipline. What is NOT nessary is to have the Federal Government running 100% 100% of the time.

All caving in on the budge debate did was reinforce that notion in people. IE increased people’s preserved dependence upon a big spending federal government!

[muawiyah]

hear whatever you want ~ the legislation in place doesn't give them tax money. The $5 billion payment they aren't making was enacted by the 2006 Congress in its waning days ~ for no purpose other than to balance the budget ~ which still didn't get balanced.

The postal reorganization act does not allow USPS to count costs of tribute ~ best possible word for that $5 bil ~ as a cost to be passed on to the rate payers as a postage rate increase.

RINO Olympia Snowe came up with that particular stupid idea ~ she's gone. Her idea should be disposed of as well.

[Monorprise]

“”Not that anyone will listen to the speaker of the house...”

The Speaker is the third in line for the presidency, though”

Maybe if someone killed the president and vice president that would mean something.

Ill be honest at this point in our collective political history I’m not going to shed a tear. I’ve already shed my tears for this country. The lawless power of the mob never leads anywhere but despotism & self-destruction. That mob has been unleashed, and the republic is dead.

[muawiyah]

USPS actually has assets ~ which can be sold or rented. Their borrowing authority is almost exhausted.

The US government, in general, has immense resources. They could base a currency on nothing but natural gas on public lands ~ and that'd be one of the world's strongest currencies ~ and could pay off the debt.

The taxpayers aren't giving USPS any money ~ at the same time the Congress is holding up on giving them approval to cut losses ~ at least $10 billion in annual costs can be eliminated by closing 28,000 rural and small urban postal facilities.

Write your congressman.

[dinodino]

You really need to check your facts. The Post Office has lost billions this year on operations, exclusive of pension payments. Here’s an article you can read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/us/politics/postal-service-reports-a-nearly-16-billion-loss.html

The USPS is a broken anachronism. At minimum, their monopoly on First Class mail should be revoked. At best, they should be shut down.

[dinodino]

I’m all for closing post offices and selling USPS assets to make the taxpayers whole! Let’s start by selling, say, 100% of them...

[muawiyah]

hmm, there is no monopoly on first class mail ~ just a monopoly on 'letter mail', and much of that is exercised by the clearing house banks under a formal exception enacted into law way back a long time ago.

what you don't know about postal operations and the financial structure of the enterprise is immense.

they operate on revenues from postage and mail related services. they cover over the losses with depreciation and loans, and sales of facilities, equipment, etc. ~ and there comes a time when they run out of money. The Postal Rate Commission refuses to allow that $5 billion tribute to be allowed to be added into the base of costs against which postage rates may be computed/imputed/disputed.

it's a living nightmare.

i already told you the solution ~ close 28,000 unneeded facilities and lay off those employees who worked there. That can be put together in a few months. the plan has been around since 1977. i have the copy in my own files that Bill Bolger reviewed in detail ~ the Congress wouldn't let us do it then. they don't want it done now.

[RitchieAprile]

is convenience a thing? is knowledge employed to provide a service a thing?

i submit that your definition of what constitutes value is
somewhat simplistic.

[mike_9958]

“Boehner and McConnell are worthless liabilities as republicans. They accomplish nothing but lose ground to untested lies.”

And your contribution to the process is ????

To judge people on what you read or hear other people say... very nice. You have no idea how to deal with people that lie to you or deal dishonorably... and hindsight is 20/20.

[cherry]

tax the damn rich....make a phoney baloney move to tax the rich more......it will bring in no more tax money maybe less....but the American peasantry will love it....

don't let bammey get control over the debt ceiling....don't allow more stimulus....

but to act all uppity about not taxing the rich is not the hill we want to die on...

[dinodino]

Read the article! The operational losses EXCLUDE the pension obligations!

The Post Office is RUNNING AT A LOSS, YEAR AFTER YEAR.

Why does the USPS still have a monopoly at all, if they are insolvent?

[muawiyah]

As i said ask your congresscritter ~ but the pension obligations have to do with the ordinary payments being made by the agency to OPM for FERS and CSRS ~ the other losses consist primarily of depreciation ~ if you'd take a really good look at the annual report and not the 'article' ~ at the same time the Congress has refused to grant them the authority to close down unnecessary facilities and to lay off unnecessary employees.

That means CONGRESS, not USPS, is insolvent if anyone is. The USPS is still a wholly owned independent executive establishment of the US government.

[muawiyah]

Taxing authority begins in the House ~ this has nothing to do with taxing the rich ~ they always take care off themselves you know what with the world's best tax lawyers and tax accountants at their beck and call.

The question is whether or not the Constitution is to be allowed to work as designed with Congress checking the excesses of a runaway Executive.

[dinodino]

I had dinner with my Congressman two weeks ago, but the USPS was not a topic of conversation.

Here’s a link to the USPS filings:

http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/welcome.htm

A quick perusal of the 8K shows that what you are saying is incorrect. 30% of the recently announced losses are operational, and due to declining First-Class and Standard mail volumes. This no surprise—snail mail is an increasingly irrelevant communications medium.

I note further that the USPS want to offer “non-postal products and services.” I welcome their doing so, PROVIDED that all of the taxpayer loan facilities are cut immediately and forevermore, and not one thin dime comes from the taxpayers in the future, AND the USPS loses its monopoly on—what did you call it?—”Letter Mail?” Open it up for competition.

I can tell you that I get bulk rates on Fedex letters, and my rate to overnight a letter with Fedex is cheaper than trying to do it with the USPS, ***and*** I can track it all the way and have a service level guarantee! The USPS, for all their billions of Federal dollars and all their legions of navel-gazing morons, cannot match Fedex’ service level or price. The USPS is a useless waste of space.

[muawiyah]

Don't argue with me ~ others on this and other Freeper thread have been seeking to draw a hard and fast distinction between the producers and the non-producers.

If i show them that leads invariably to differentiation between those who make things and those who do not make things, that sticks the store keepers and coupon clippers over into the non producer categories.

My position is that in a highly complex economy you cannot draw such distinctions over time in any meaningful way. Today's worker was yesterday's child, and will be tomorrow's retiree. Could be the coupon clipper is like Mitt Romney ~ he got his education and then gave away his inheritance and went about creating his own fortune ~ probably in the context of interminable meetings with others of his kind, and maybe even doing a little walking around the sites of investment acquisition targets ~ hardly manual labor ~ if you catch my drift.

Guy's never had a job! That's where you are something other than the boss BTW. So where does he really belong ~ is it with the producers or the non producers, the takers or the givers? What about now that he's retired from 'active management' (an oxymoron if we've ever seen one eh).

What you need to do is come up with a far different dichotomy so that you don't find yourself telling elderly disabled retirees they are all white trash ~ jus' gotta' do better than that.

[muawiyah]

hmm ~ spent a good while working on the tracking system and when we started developing it your boys in Fed Ex and UPS immediately filed formal complaints with the Postal Rate Commission to STOP US.

i did mention borrowing ~ they borrow money ~ and operating losses are a cause for concern at the Postal Rate Commission ~ the postal design is to raise postage rates with PRC permission.

Talk to your Congressman ~ ask him why that hasn't been done.

[dinodino]

I can assure you that if I have this conversation with my Congressman, I am going to be pushing for complete dissolution of the Postal Service.

Why don’t the USPS run like any other business, and borrow money from banks? Why do they go to the Federal trough for credit?

By the way, the USPS tracking system is a joke. Have you ever tried to mail a critical document via USPS? I HAVE. Guess what happened? IT VANISHED. I did not get a refund, and the disinterested clerks at the Post Office where I mailed it basically told me, “Yeah, you paid extra, but it’s not guaranteed to get there by any particular time, and no, you do not have recourse.” Needless to say, that was THE LAST time that I used their service for anything important.

[muawiyah]

The USPS used to have independent borrowing authority but Congress decided to restrict them to borrowing through the Treasury because, get this, the rates were lower, and costs of servicing the loans were far less ~ and actually, the rates were sometimes lower, but the costs of servicing the loans went through the roof since the Treasury isn't all that efficient ~ they just say they're efficient ~ but they're not.

See your Congress-critter on that one BTW ~ it's the law ~ not a management decision!

Marvin Runyon is the guy who fired the USPS finance VP because, as it turned out, he was using private sector banks. Marvin was one of Ronald Regan's buddies ~ and also my cousin Senator Alexander's friend for that matter. (again, small world at the top). Republicans decided USPS shouldn't use private sector banks!

[muawiyah]

Now the tracking system ~ UPS refused to license theirs for general industry use. Talk to them about the problem. They caused it. BTW, people at USPS got fired over the issue ~ not me though ~ others.

[9YearLurker]

Actually, no. If Boehner and McConnell would get out of the way for younger, less compromised and more conservative GOP leadership, we’d be better off.