On to another quote:
The mandate allows the antigovernment crowd to proclaim that the Postal Service "is going bankrupt." Their solution is to slash hundreds of thousands of jobs, close thousands of post offices, eliminate hundreds of mail processing plants, end Saturday mail, and substantially slow down mail delivery.
Actually, the main reason why the USPS has stopped the ship from sinking, and is near being profitable, is* because* they "slashed" a ton of jobs, closed offices which were redundant, and improved efficiency in their processing plants. This hasn't been as simple as Bernie makes it out, though. The unions have been a very large obstacle in the way of the USPS fixing their massive financial issues. Consider this
[In his initial FY2010 budget, President Barack
Obama proposed requiring USPS employees to
pay the same percentage towards their health premiums and life insurance as other federal
workers.
24
(Currently, USPS employees pay 17% of their health care premium costs and 0% of
their life insurance premiums, while other federal employees pay 27% and 67% respectively.)
25
The administration estimated this new policy
would save th
e USPS $752 millio
n in FY2010 and
$9.5 billion in the period of FY
2010 to FY2019. Reportedly, the proposal was dropped because of
concerns that it would violate collective bargaining.](http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/industrywhitepapers/R41024_20100119.pdf) Pages 11 of the pdf, page 8 of the report.
The ship is sinking. So do you think the union would help bail them out by bringing their employee contributions up to par with every other federal worker, or even the majority of workers in the private sector? Nope. They stuck with their no layoff clause, forcing the USPS to cut their employment rolls through attrition and early retirement packages. Hell they even fought for their "historic no subcontracting clause" in the latest labor contract arbitration, which is what they are using to attack the proposed kiosks at Staples. It's not being addressed seriously because people look at unions as untouchable, and any tough stance against them as somehow the attempted destruction of the middle class. While unions do have their benefits, in this case they are also massively contributing to the financial downfall of the USPS. But, again, it's Bernie standing up for the little guy. Which in this case is that largest, most powerful union in the country.
Despite union opposition, the USPS has posted their first operating profit in years for the 2014 fiscal year. They are using the PAEA not only as a wake up call to improve their efficiency and cut unnecessary costs, but to utilize the changes funding requirements to take saved costs and apply them to the retirement benefit fund. This is due to a change you'll never hear brought up by PAEA opponents, which freed up billions of dollars, and handed the USPS an enormous chunk of change. Before the PAEA, the USPS was responsible for payments to the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). These payments were retroactively transferred back to the US Treasury, relieving the USPS of a $27 billion obligation, as well as payments to the fund of around $2 billion/year. Had the PAEA not been enacted, the USPS would still be responsible for this obligation and the payments, and we would probably have to listen to people like Bernie complain about the Postal Reform Act of 2003 instead of the PAEA.
The profit realized in 2014 was also due in large part to revenue that was never accounted for from their Forever stamps. This added almost $2 billion in adjusted revenue to their year-end numbers. Unfortunately, that discovered revenue will not be there in the future, so they are still in a pretty big hole. But at least they are digging themselves out.
Bernie also does a fantastic job of placing the majority of the blame on Republicans for the PAEA and the USPS's financial problems. He makes sure to emphasize that the PAEA was signed under President Bush's watch, saying that he insisted on it. Nevermind that it was a bipartisan bill which passed the Senate unanimously and passed the House on a voice vote. It's all a plot by the Republicans!!! He also tries to portray Darrell Issa's bill to fix the USPS's structural and operational problems as a solution which would put the USPS into a "death spiral" (not hyperbolic at all). I'm not sure about you, but ending Saturday deliveries wouldn't affect me in the least, and surely wouldn't cause the death of the USPS as their customers scrambles to find alternative means of receiving letters and junk mail on the weekend. Getting rid of this one day would save them billions each year. But the unions can't let that happen. Need to keep that 6-day work week going strong. And they're helped tremendously by the likes of Bernie using the idea to paint Republicans as attempting to get rid of the postal service so that their customers will flock to private companies.
Which brings us to the subject of Bernie's hypocrisy. Yes, he lies about the PAEA. yes he tries to paint the Republicans as the bad guys. And yes he spreads misinformation over and over in an attempt to cash in on the pro-USPS, pro-union, anti-GOP sentiment of his constituents. But that alone doesn't make him a hypocrite. What does make him one is the fact that he supported the PAEA when it was first signed into law. I know that probably comes as a surprise, given Bernie's recent condemnation of the bill. But that's what a populist does. Hop on the popular stories of the day and ride them as far as possible, truth be damned.
Let's look into this a bit further. As I stated above, the original bill, H.R. 22, was cosponsored by 163 members of congress. Bernie was among them. That bill passed the house by a vote of 410-20 (the 20 votes against we all made by Republicans). Bernie was one of the “aye” votes. The amended bill, H.R. 6407, passed the Senate unanimously and passed the House on a unanimous voice vote. At the reading of the bill, there were no words against the bill, and the only members of congress who addressed the floor praised the bill. The postal workers unions and the USPS both praised the passing of the bill, which each contributed to heavily. And there was no outrage from Mr Sanders. Which is odd, since he is sooooo against it today. What happened to change his mind?
Bernie didn't address the USPS's problems until years later. As I said above, he fully supported the PAEA, and didn't raise a single objection to it's passing. In fact, he didn't make a single peep about the bill or the USPS until August 2011, when 15 post offices were targeted for closure in his state of Vermont. The only time he actually cared was when the USPS's attempts to solve its financial problems affected him. And the first mention of him talking about the requirement for the USPS to fund their retirement health benefits came in November of that year. So, did he rail against the corporate fat cats and the Republicans for trying to kill the poor old USPS? Did he claim that the bill was an attempt by the GOP to crush the unions and destroy a treasured national service? Did he scream from the rooftops that the USPS had to be saved from the evil corporations? Well, not exactly:
Sanders blamed the Postal Service's money troubles largely on accounting issues, including a law requiring it to set aside retiree health and retirement benefits far in advance.
Not exactly the scathing rhetoric of his "Save the Post Office" squeals, is it. No, that came a bit later when he saw that he could save those post offices by saying the bill was killing the USPS. That would help him get the unions on his side! Unions who have since done a 180 on the PAEA, using tools like Sanders to paint the bill as an attack on them, rather than a bill they helped pass because it was in their best interests. Or better yet, kill two birds with one stone by saying it is a Republican plot to destroy the post office, and hand it over to their corporate masters. That would help get the Democrats and liberals on his side, and capitalize on their anti-corporation sentiment. Nah, fuck that. Go for the Turkey. Make it all part of the scheme that the rich elites, like the Koch brothers, have concocted to take control of the entire world!
What a joke.
The PAEA and the condition of the USPS is a perfect example of how Bernie uses populist rhetoric, misinformation, and outright lies to further his agenda and reputation. He fully supported the bill before criticizing it became a political weapon for him. Before he could capitalize on the bullshit he spreads, attacking both the Republicans and those sinister corporations. Before he saw that he could use people as useful tools to parrot his misinformation and lies, and to evangelize about how great a man Bernie is. He is the epitome of what is wrong with populism. And the hero-worship /r/politics heaps upon him is a wonderful example of how gullible and ideologically blind this place is. Watch any post involving something Senator Sanders has said. You will see whatever he says repeated as fact all over the place. The redditors here love to boast about how educated they are. How rational they are. How free-thinking they are. In reality, they simply take what they are fed and regurgitate it over and over, ironically mocking anyone who disagrees with them as being "brainwashed" by Fox News/Rush Limbaugh/etc. It's hilariously sad, and Bernie is laughing right along.