March 4, 2013

Hmmmm.... Mar 1, 2013 CBO Report on Chained CPI

I would say chained-cpi is on the table. Below is the report. Looks like
Social Security gets hit hard.

Consider this: The 'savings' from the C-CPI is about $12.72 Billion per year for 10 years.
So, our government decides that American Retirees are just getting too much of their own
money and they think that is wrong.

Then compare this $12 billion/year to the military budget. Why can't they reduce their budget by
$12 billion/year. It isn't like we are in global world war?

One can deduce that our government Hates American retirees and so they use that money and
'give' it to rich military contractors...

We get non-stop bombardments from Obama and Pelosi and every republican that cuts to 'entitlement'
programs are mandatory to reduce spending. Funny thing, Social Security is *Self-funding* and contributes
*Zero* to the budget. Not one dime from the General Fund goes to funding earned benefits.

Fellow DUer, Jackpine Radical, posted this last night: "The time to scream is BEFORE it's a done deal".

We have to stop our government from taking/reducing our earned benefits.



CBO Link: http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43965?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=812526&utm_campaign=0

February 8, 2013

How the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act was passed

This thread shows how devious and un-American this Postal Act was passed.


Part 1: HR 22 January 4, 2005 – February 9, 2006 *failed*

It seems this bill has been in the works for years. Where we can catch-up to it is in the 109th Congress (2005-2006). On January 4, 2005, HR 22, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act was introduced by Rep John McHugh (R-NY23). It came out of committee on April 13, 2005.

There were 163 cosponsors of the bill: 104 Democrats, 58 Republicans, and 1 independent. Well-known Democrats and Independents (just one) were part of the cosponsor list. It passed the House on Jul 26, 2005. The vote was 410 to 20 – quite the bipartisan vote.

Then on February 9, 2006, the Senate passed the bill. I am not sure how they passed the bill, as there was not a recorded vote.

It is also important to note that the ‘pre-funding of the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund (Title VIII, Section 8909a) in the above bill (HR 22) did not have the precise dollar amount payment schedule (e.g. ‘$5.4B not later than Sept 30, 2007’ that the enacted bill has). Instead, there were formulas.

HR 22 died after the Senate passed the bill with changes.





Part 2: HR 6407 December 7, 2006 – December 20, 2006 *passed*

The House

On December 7, 2006, HR 6407, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act was introduced to the House by Congressman Tom Davis (R-VA). There were three sponsors, two Democrats and one Republican.

This version of the bill contained the precise dollar amounts:


The next day, December 8, 2006, at 10:10pm, HR 6407 was considered under suspension of the rules. Debate lasted till 10:33pm. One Democratic representative, Mr. Davis of Illinois participated in the debate. The debate was nothing but praise for HR 6407.

After the debate, the ‘vote’ was taken:


The vote was only a voice vote. Representative Pence (R-IN) asked for a recorded vote and was denied.





The Senate

The very next day, December 9, 2012 (actually after midnight, December 8, 2012), the Senate proceeded on HR 6407. Senator Murray (D-WA) was the only Democrat speaking on the bill. From the Congressional Record the bill was passed by unanimous consent:




Summary

The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act was passed in less than 48 hours. There were no recorded votes. Republican Congressman Pence asked for the yeas and nays but was denied. Appears Democrats had no objections. The Congressional Record seems to indicate that Minority Leader Reid was on the floor when the Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent.

I do know that the ‘prizes’ of this bill were

1) Awesome and valuable Post Office buildings were sold off because of financial losses. They could not just sell off these buildings for no reason – right?

2) The first reduction of services just occurred – no Saturday delivery. This will snowball into increase postal workload and increase delivery times.

3) A cry will go out to ‘privatize’ the Post Office

4) Postal Unions will disappear

5) And, finally, any delivery will eventually cost a small fortune.