Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Postal Service's financial crisis continues to escalate. At the end of this month, the U.S. Postal Service will miss the deadline for the required $5.6 billion payment toward its future retiree health care obligations. In fact, the Postal Service will have defaulted on more than $11 billion in payments to fund health care for future retirees, raising concerns about its ability to keep promises to current workers about their future benefits. Five months ago, the Senate passed by a strong bipartisan vote legislation to shore up the Postal Service. Yet the House has failed to act. And unfortunately, the House is about to adjourn without taking up either the Senate-passed postal bill or a House version. I have implored House leaders to take up postal reform legislation-- any postal reform legislation--so the conference process and the difficult negotiations involved in that process can begin in earnest. No one should pretend this is not a crisis worthy of congressional action. The Postal Service has lost more than $13 billion during the past 2 years and is losing $25 million each day. It will reach its credit limit of $15 billion by the end of the year. Despite the fact that Congress has deferred or reduced the Postal Service's payments for future retiree health benefits multiple times, the Postal Service has still reported billions of dollars in deficits--clear evidence that its fiscal woes go far beyond this requirement.…”