Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator from Vermont for his statement but more broadly for his real steadfastness and the hard work he has done to improve the bill. It has been a pleasure to work with him. Before Senator Collins came to the floor, and not counting the occupant of the chair, I was reveling in the fact that the only Senators on the floor were Independents. Anyway, I thank Senator Sanders. We have tried to deal with this problem. In the postal reform of 2006, Senator Sanders is quite right, for various reasons which we need not go into the Postal Service was required to make payments into the retiree health benefit fund that were beyond what most any business or other governmental entity is doing, more than was necessary to sustain the payments and in a much shorter period of time, as the Senator from Vermont said. I would say, to state it as bluntly as I can, maybe too bluntly, the people advocating this were, frankly, concerned that the Postal Service might get to a point where it defaulted, it was no longer able to operate, and then the fear was that the government, the U.S. Treasury, the taxpayers would at some point in the future be forced to pick up the cost of the retiree health benefits. So this uniquely demanding responsibility for payment now was put on the Postal Service. I think everybody agrees, particularly in light of all the real problems the Postal Service has now, that is not sensible or fair. I do want to point out that in the underlying bill, S.…”