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Will our USPS be sold out?

02/24/2013 Nativegrl77

by Rashad Robinson, ColorOfChange.org

House Republicans are trying to bankrupt the post office — so they can privatize it.

Tell Congress: Stand up for postal workers and the public. Hands off our Postal Service!

House Republicans are jumping at the chance to put the U.S. Postal Service — one of America’s most widely-used and well-trusted civic institutions¹ — on the chopping block, and to throw a half million largely Black and female unionized workers out of a job.^2,3

It’s a scandal. By most mainstream news accounts, the USPS is broke and beyond repair. The media is now parroting what used to be far-right talking points about actually selling off, or privatizing, the postal system outright.⁴

Except the post office isn’t broke — and hasn’t taken a dime of taxpayer money since 1971.⁵ Congress created the USPS’s financial crisis, and they could end it today. A Bush-era requirement that the Postal Service pre-fund its retiree benefits 75 years into the future — a burden imposed on no other government agency or private employer — has been digging the otherwise profitable Postal Service deeper and deeper into the red.^6,7 Instead of working to fix the problem, Republicans in the House are taking advantage of the post office’s financial vulnerability to try to shut it down.

Please join us in urging Congress to enact postal reform that drops the USPS’s unfair 75-year pre-funding burden and keeps the post office in service to the public.

Due to its exceptional efficiency,⁸ the Postal Service has managed to turn a profit on postal sales in the worst economy since the Great Depression. But the massive pre-funding payments required by Congress have added up, and the USPS’s financial situation is now so dire that the Postmaster General is threatening to cut Saturday mail delivery.⁹ Such a move would immediately slash 18% of the postal workforce¹⁰ and create delays for Veterans’ and Social Security checks, putting people who are already struggling to make it to the end of the month at even greater risk.¹¹

Because of its obligation and responsibility to provide affordable, universal service, only the USPS can be counted on to reach every home in America, rain or shine. After Superstorm Sandy, which severed public transportation links and shuttered retail for weeks in the worst-hit areas, the Postal Service was all many had to rely on for access to life-saving medicines.¹² Live in an urban neighborhood “too dangerous” for UPS and FedEx, or down a remote rural lane? Without the USPS you’d receive no service at all.¹³

The public sector is under relentless right-wing attack¹⁴ — and Black working women are bearing the brunt. Nationwide, 40% of postal workers are women and 20% are Black, although in cities like Chicago, Black letter carriers can comprise upwards of 75% of the local USPS workforce.¹⁵ When the country is still experiencing nearly 8% unemployment — and Black unemployment has climbed back up to 14%¹⁶ — any deliberate effort to put even more of us out of work is indefensible.

The Postal Service must continue to work for all of us. Please join us in urging Congress to stop bankrupting the USPS’s future and adopt real postal reform that respects workers and our communities.

Claims that mail delivery has been made obsolete by the advent of email and online bill payment ring hollow for the 46% of Black Americans without access to high-speed Internet in their homes.¹⁷ And making financial transactions online isn’t an option for the more than 37 million American households — over 60% of whom are Black or Latino — without a bank account or access to formal credit,¹⁸ for whom inexpensive post office money orders meet a vitally important need.

Congress will make a decision on ending Saturday delivery as early as next Friday, setting the stage for a showdown on the larger question of retiree benefits in March. To that end, Congress is now working on competing proposals for postal reform that will result in either further punishing and privatizing the Postal Service, or in removing obstacles to innovation and expanding USPS’s flexibility to meet additional critical needs — including by offering public Internet access, community banking and expanded vote by mail.^19,20,21

Please join us in urging Congress to stand up for postal workers and the public, by adopting postal reform legislation that rejects privatization and puts the post office back on solid financial ground. And when you do, please tell your friends and family to do the same.

Thanks and Peace,

–Rashad, Matt, Arisha, Kim and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team February 21st, 2013

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU—your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don’t share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way.

References

1. “The Postal Service is struggling, but not because of the mail,” Washington Post, 07-19-12 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2245?t=10&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

2. “Postal Workers: The Last Union,” Truthout, 09-08-11 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2246?t=12&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

3. “USPS’s Largely Black and Female Workforce Rallies to Save Jobs,” Colorlines, 09-28-11 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2255?t=14&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

4. “Post Office Privatization Is Probably a Huge Real Estate Deal,” 08-02-12 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2244?t=16&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

5. “The Post Office is not broke—and it hasn’t taken any of our tax money since 1971,” Hightower Lowdown, 03-01-12 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2259?t=18&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

6. “Congress Can Block Postal Austerity, and Save Saturday Delivery,” The Nation, 02-13-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2248?t=20&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

7. “Mandate pushed Postal Service into the red for first quarter,” Washington Post, 02-08-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2249?t=22&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

8. “Why the Postal Service Is Going Out of Business,” Forbes, 12-06-11 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2258?t=24&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

9. See reference 6.

10. “Dead Letter Blues,” Jacobin, 02-11-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2272?t=26&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

11. “Nader, Bernie Sanders Slam Postal Service for No Sat. Delivery,” The Progressive, 02-06-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2251?t=28&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

12. “Do We Really Want to Live Without the Post Office?” Esquire, 01-22-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2254?t=30&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

13. See reference 2.

14. “The collateral damage of cutting postal service,” Washington Post, 02-12-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2247?t=32&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

15. “U.S. Post Office cuts threaten source of black jobs,” Reuters, 01-21-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2256?t=34&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

16. “Black Unemployment Rate Shoots Up from 12.9% to 14%,” Politic365, 01-04-13 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2257?t=36&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

17. “Pew Internet: Broadband,” Pew Internet & American Life Project, 05-24-12 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2252?t=38&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

18. “Black, Latino Consumers Severely Under-Banked,” Atlanta Black Star, 12-07-12 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2253?t=40&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

19. “Issa’s Postal Service Reform Bill Includes Hidden Union Busting,” ThinkProgress, 07-14-11 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2260?t=42&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

20. “End of Saturday Mail Delivery Gets Conservative Support,” Roll Call, 02-06-2013 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2261?t=44&akid=2820.1174326.XREeCr

21. See reference 6.

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Are you on the Sequester cut list ?

02/23/2013 Nativegrl77

ThinkProgress War Room

Budgets are statements of values and priorities. What the GOP is preparing to do in less than a week says a lot about their priorities. Instead of closing tax loopholes and making smart spending cuts, the GOP is going to let damaging across the board spending cuts kick in next Friday. These cuts will not only damage the economy, they’ll hurt individual families and communities across the country.

Check out what eliminating just two giveaways to the wealthy and corporation could pay for. For example, we could avoid painful cuts to investments in jobs and education just by ending a giveaway to corporate jet owners”

And we could stop harmful cuts to children and families with disabilities if we just stopped letting the wealthiest Americans get tax breaks for the vacation homes and yachts:

Instead of asking the wealthiest Americans and special interests like Big Oil and Wall Street to pay their fair share, Republicans are insisting that families, including the most vulnerable among us, shoulder the burden of reducing our deficit and debt.

BOTTOM LINE: There’s still a week left to avert the damaging and painful sequester cuts. All Republicans have to do is agree to a balanced approach that replaces the indiscriminate cuts with both new revenues and smarter, targeted spending cuts.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Flying will be even more unpleasant thanks to the sequester (if you’re local airport isn’t simply closed).

House Republicans quietly introduce watered-down Violence Against Women Act.

Ted Cruz goes full Joe McCarthy.

5 important stories in Africa that don’t involve Oscar Pistorious.

Maryland is on the verge of repealing the death penalty.

Here’s 5 ways the sequester might make you sick.

New abortion bill in Indiana mandates two transvaginal probes.

Why taxes must go up.

How Republican activists are trying to use the courts to dismantle decades of progressive victories.

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#FaceOfClimate

02/23/2013 Nativegrl77

Today, exactly two months before Earth Day, Earth Day Network has announced the global theme for Earth Day 2013: The Face of Climate Change.

Why? Climate change can seem like a remote problem for many, but the fact is that it’s already impacting real people, animals, and beloved places all over the world. These Faces of Climate Change are multiplying every day. Fortunately, others are too: those stepping up to do something about it. For Earth Day 2013, we’ll tell the world these stories. We’ll tell the world your stories.

Between now and Earth Day, we’ll collect and display images that show The Face of Climate Change – and we need your help.

On and around Earth Day – April 22 – an interactive digital display of all the images will be shown at thousands of events around the world, including next to federal government buildings in the countries that produce the most carbon pollution. The display will also be made available online to anyone who wants to view or show it.

You can upload your photos and stories here. If possible, include a face in the picture and hold up a sign that says “The Face of Climate Change.” You can also post photos to Twitter and Instagram using this hashtag:

The Face of Climate Change will not only personalize and make real the massive challenge that climate change presents, it will unite Earth Day activities around the world into one call to action at a critical time. Join the movement!

– The Earth Day Network Team

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Beware: The Scooter Store

02/23/2013 Nativegrl77

David Sell, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: Friday, February 22, 2013, 3:01 AM

In TV ads, the Scooter Store suggests to seniors and others needing motorized scooters and wheelchairs that they can be had for almost no cost because the company will handle all the messy paperwork with insurers, particularly Medicare.

Wednesday and Thursday brought another example that nothing is free. Somebody – often taxpayers – has to pay.

About 150 state and federal law enforcement officers raided the company’s headquarters in a San Antonio suburb. The action was another phase in an ongoing health-care fraud investigation of the Scooter Store, which has an outlet in the Philadelphia region.

A spokesman for the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, which administers Medicare and Medicaid, would say only that the agency “executed a search warrant at several locations of the Scooter Store and that we were part of a multiagency task force.”

The San Antonio Express-News reported that OIG was joined by the FBI and the Texas Attorney General‘s Medicaid fraud unit.

The Scooter Store’s Philadelphia outlet is in Trainer, Delaware County. The manager declined to give his name and referred a reporter to the national office, which did not respond to phone and e-mail requests for comment.

“This raid is a welcome step toward cracking down on waste and fraud in Medicare payments for motorized wheelchairs involving the Scooter Store,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) said in a statement. “I have urged action to stop abusive overpayments for such devices – costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and preying on seniors with deceptive sales pitches.”

The cost of health care is a huge component in local, state, and national debates about how to solve budget challenges. In recent years, the federal government has increased efforts to scrutinize billing practices and thwart fraud, with durable medical devices being one area of particular concern.

Blumenthal is among the congressional leaders who have urged federal authorities to crack down on what they view as deceptive advertising that results in some angry seniors and bills for all taxpayers.

As Blumenthal noted, this is not the first time the Scooter Store has faced allegations of fraud.

In 2007, the company settled a civil suit with the Justice Department by paying $4 million and forgoing $13 million in Medicare claims after the government alleged the company submitted false claims for power wheelchairs that, among other things, beneficiaries did not want, did not need, or could not use.

The company’s five-year corporate integrity agreement with the government was due to expire in 2012 but remains open. The company was also supposed to reimburse the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) $19.5 million for overpayments between 2009 and 2011, according to the San Antonio newspaper. However, senators criticized the CMS for not pushing for more reimbursements, based on an outside audit of the company’s operations.

The company’s website has a specific category of products called “Medicare-Reimbursable Power Chairs,” with several listed for $3,699. It posed the question many seniors would ask: Is the power chair or scooter entirely covered by my insurance?

The answer had a few caveats, including the Medicare requirement to meet with a doctor to determine mobility needs. It also said: “If you qualify, Medicare may cover up to 80 percent of the cost of your power chair. Your supplemental insurance may pay the remaining 20 percent. In most cases, our customers pay little to nothing for their power chairs.”

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Forward on Climate Rally – February 17, 2013

02/22/2013 Nativegrl77

On February 17, nearly 50,000 Americans and 168 different organizations marched to the president’s front door to demand we go forward on climate.

This wasn’t just a one-time rally — it was the beginning of a movement. Now we need to show President Obama that those marchers represented millions of us across the country.

There are three steps President Obama can take right now, without waiting on Congress, to start fulfilling his promise to lead on climate. It’s up to you to help him take those steps.

Call the White House today at (202) 456-1111 and tell them that, for the sake of our future, we need President Obama to:

Stop Keystone XL and other tar sands infrastructure
Enact strong standards to limit carbon pollution from our nation’s dirty power plants
Protect America’s lands — including the Arctic — from oil, coal, and unregulated fracking

If the line is busy, keep trying!