Political Quotes

“Madam President, first of all, the inspector general verifies the amount of the overpayments. His letter to Senator Lieberman, Senator Carper, Senator Scott Brown, and myself, dated February 2, 2012, says: The postal surplus for the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) has been projected to be $11.4 billion for fiscal year 2011. The Office of Personnel Management made this projection as of September 30 of 2011. In addition, OPM has projected the postal surplus of the Civil Service Retirement System to be $1.7 billion for fiscal year 2011. We are not trying to deal with that; we are only dealing with the FERS surplus. Here is the key paragraph. The source of the FERS funding comes from two streams of revenue: (1) the U.S. Postal Service contributes 11.9 percent of employee salaries to the fund and (2) the employees contribute 0.8 percent. The Postal Service contribution comes from revenue paid for postage, and this money comes from the ratepayers. The employee contribution, as with all Federal employees, is made in exchange for a defined benefit. This could not be more clear. This is not taxpayers' money. No matter how many times some of our colleagues may say this is a taxpayer bailout or this is taxpayers' money, it is not true. It is not an accurate understanding of how the system works. I am going to circulate this letter widely, and I hope my colleagues will take the time to read it.…”