Government Mandate Puts Profitable Post Office In The Red

Every single day, except for Sundays, we can go out to our mailbox and receive just about any form of correspondence or package that anyone in the world has chosen to send us. All they need is our address. Let’s think about that for a second. Someone on the opposite side of the world can go to their local post office and, with just our address, have that postal agency send a letter or parcel to our country and that object arrives in our mailbox.

This very same system also provides the ability for anyone in America to send us a parcel or letter, directly to our mailbox, from anywhere in the United States for less than the cost of pretty much any private or third party shipper. In fact, when it comes to letters, it costs the same to send a letter across town as it does across the country. How amazing is that?!

This is called the flat rate U.S. Postal Service, and it lost $5,100,000,000 (that’s $5.1 billion) over the course of its last fiscal year. But the postal service’s losses are not the result of the discrepancy in the cost of service whether your letter travels 3,000 miles or 10 feet, nor are the losses the result of the lack of profitability of it’s service offerings. These huge losses are caused by a congressional mandate that forces the U.S. Postal Service to pre-fund 75 years' worth of retirement benefits for its employees.

Come again? Yes, there is only one entity in the entire country that is required by an act of congress to pre-fund 75 years worth of retirement benefits for its employees…our postal service. What effect has this had on the independent, U.S. government agency? Well, before the congressional mandate, it was profitable and in the black every year, but today, it has lost money the last nine years in a row and is $15 billion in debt.

Once again, government has taken a profitable business and regulated it into the red.

Want proof? Take away the retirement pre-funding requirement and the post office would have turned a $623 million profit last year instead of a $5.1 billion loss. While the good news is that this pre-funding requirement actually will end with this fiscal year, our U.S. Postal Service will start 2017 over $15 billion in debt as opposed to beginning the year debt free, as would have been the case for the past nine years without this restricting congressional mandate.

Government’s job should be to regulate trade, not force organizations to take on vast amounts of debt just to exist.

Photo by Xavier Massa via Pexels

It's Time To Secure Cyberspace

Whether left or right, liberal or conservative, libertarian or mainstream party hardliner, taxpayer or tax money recipient, I think most of us as Americans can agree the one thing we expect from our government is to shield us from attack.

I am confident when alien invaders strike from above or a foreign army lands on the beach or zombies come streaming across the land, our military will be ready and willing to fight to defend us. But, there is a scary, new frontier that all the aircraft carriers, jet aircraft, smart weapons and the most highly-trained and prepared military force in the world are all powerless to stop without a serious shift in U.S. government policy: cyberspace.

I recently read an article from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on a small business that was forced to close its doors by a hacker, or a group of hackers, or maybe even that group of folks in those guy-from-England masks themselves. Sorry for the vague and wordy description, but I’m afraid to type out their name in case they have their Google alerts on!

The business featured in the article developed a site designed to allow people to post their opinions on political issues of the day, essentially providing a forum for people to debate back and forth through pre-recorded video. This was truly a small start-up, founded by college students and funded with a mere $35,000. This site could have been the next great thing, but once users posted videos commenting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, hackers set out to destroy the site.

The attack began by redirecting the site’s main page to another page, which featured a graphic of that famous hacking mask and some green Matrix-style falling letters and numbers. Every time the site’s owners had the page redirect fixed, it was hacked and redirected again. Each time a hack was fixed, it was costing the site’s owners money because paid contractors maintained the site. Though they eventually found some angel coders to fix the hacks for free, the relentlessness of the attacks led the business owners to abandon their site and try to operate their vision through a mobile app. Unfortunately, though, the mobile app never caught on and hackers successfully silenced another site that had great capital potential.

According to a study by the National Cyber Security Alliance, these small business owners are not alone. One in five small businesses becomes the victim of hacking and of those that do, 60 percent go out of business within six months. But, according to a recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce article, as cybercrime increases, our country still lacks policies to defend America’s cyber networks and the companies that use them.

The biggest problem for businesses that get hacked is they simply do not have the resources to fight back. They are completely on their own, fighting the attack in a silo. There is no “911” to call, no federal agency to ask for help when an attack occurs. The business can only hunker down and rely on the limited personnel and funds they have to combat the relentless attacks of people with a very unlimited resource – their own free time.

The only way we can fix this problem is to demand that our government step in to defend these small businesses – to defend us as Americans – just as they would if the hackers landed on the beach with a gunboat and an army in tow.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

One of the first steps our country's leaders should take to strengthen our defenses, experts say, is to pass federal cybersecurity information sharing legislation, which would protect firms that share information about data breaches and other cybersecurity-related experiences with public officials and other companies. Without it, business leaders will remain understandably hesitant to share information about attacks for fear of litigation or other consequences.

This sounds like a really great idea to me. Fortunately, legislation that would accomplish this has already passed the House and is being debated in the Senate. Let’s hope the people we put our faith in and send to Washington see fit to make every small business owner just as safe from cyberattacks as they are today from aliens, zombies and foreign armies.

Keep An Eye On Washington This Week...They're Talking About Your Money

This week, House Republicans are planning to introduce $4 trillion in federal spending cuts that would go into effect over the next decade. How nice to see a proposal that entails 10 years worth of cuts instead of ten years worth of increased spending. Republicans are getting the message. Let's hope the Democrats are not too far behind.

I saw a clip last night of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in which he was blaming the craziness of Republican proposed spending cuts on the Tea Party. What Harry Reid and his fellow Spendo-crats are failing to realize is that this is not just the sentiment of the Tea Party, but is the sentiment of the American Taxpayer who thinks it is time for our government to start spending less.

Our sitting President officially launched is re-election campaign for 2012 today. What you won't see in any of his campaign ads is that his budget numbers are so inaccurate that the politically-independent Congressional Budget Office say the President's deficit projections are over $2 trillion lower than they should be when looking at the next decade. Clearly, the Master & Commander is going to hit the campaign trail painting a more rosy picture of our future than actually exists.

The Republican spending cut proposal also comes with strict spending caps in select areas. With the government looking to once again change the law to allow even more deficit spending by raising the legally-allowed debt ceiling to rise once again, it is time for the American taxpayer to take a stand. "We are going to put out a plan that gets our debt on a downward trajectory and gets us to a point of giving our next generation a debt-free nation," said Republican House Representative and Budget Committee Chairman from Wisconsin Paul Ryan.

With the current budget extension bill expiring this week, Republicans and Democrats need to come together quickly to prevent a government shutdown. There is going to be all sorts of wrangling back and forth on what should be cut and what should be left alone. Each side believes that certain spending should be immune from cuts and certain spending is ready for the chopping block. Finding a consensus on what will be cut and what will be protected will not be an easy process.

Be sure to keep an eye on Washington this week. They are going to spend quite a bit of time talking about your money, how they are going to spend it, and how much more debt they are looking to put on your shoulders.

A Return, Even If Partially, To A System Of Checks And Balances

One great reason to look forward to 2011 is that we will see a return, even if partially, to the system of checks and balances in that putrid cesspool of ridiculous spending known as Washington, D.C. that the Founding Fathers (yep, I’m still going to call them that in 2011) put in place for a very good reason. 

2011 will hopefully see a time when we are not voting for bills on Monday that we are going to get around to having a chance to read next Tuesday; a time when there is a small voice that can say, “Hey, wait a minute, why don’t we wait a minute?” instead of cramming and ramming piece after piece of legislation through voting in the 11th hour when everyone is distracted by the flashy lights and Christmas songs and not really watching what is going on over in Crazy Town.

Let’s hope that in 2011, the American Taxpayer actually gets to see the cavalcade of foundational system change for the sake of creating a new world order finally stop, or at least slow to a reasonable pace. Let’s hope that in 2011, the American Taxpayer sees these m-f-ing hot air balloons actually quit with the god damned earmarks like they’ve been promising. When even Tea Party candidates are taking earmarks, it’s not time to change the system, it is time to wipe the damned slate clean and just start over.

Let’s hope that in 2011, the American Taxpayer sees the Congress and the Executive Branch curtail the reckless and fruitless spending and spend what is needed, where and when it is actually needed. Let’s hope that in 2011, the American Taxpayer sees less and less “Change The World” and a whole hell-of-a lot more “Creating Jobs” and “Jump-Starting The Economy.”

I know that you elected him so that you could get your free healthcare and your car note paid without having to actually go out and get a job, or for your papeles, or your mama’s papeles, but it is time for all of us – both those of you who voted for him and those of us who didn’t – to come together to expect this President to deliver on his promises on job creation, boosting the economy, and reducing government spending and the deficit.

I say the two years of playing in the sandbox with your buddies is rightly ended, and now it is time to come in and get to work. He wants Republicans and Democrats to work together? I say we do just that and start holding him accountable to those promises – not the ones where he promised everyone who doesn't pay any income taxes even more free shit, but the ones where he promised to enact actual change on this economy and that damned town he’s been living in for the past two years.

How Faux Is Your Faux Fur? Chances Are It's Not 100% Fake...

In 2000, the U.S. Congress passed a law that banned the sale of dog and cat fur in the United States.

This law was designed to stop Chinese manufacturers from a practice of sneaking in cheaper dog and cat fur into garments labeled as "faux fur".

While commendable, the problem is that the U.S. Congress, as it usually does, left a bit of a loophole. Any garment trimmed with $150 or less worth of real fur can be sold without any label, therefore, giving manufacturers in China the ability to substitute faux fur with real dog and cat fur and not have to put a label on the garment stating that they had done so. Without a label stating that a garment was made using real animal fur, American consumers just assume that the garment was made with faux fur.

Both the House and the Senate are currently working on bills that will close this loophole, stating that garments with ANY amount of animal fur must be labeled. Over 75 million animals are killed around the world for their fur each year, with 2 million dogs and cats being killed in China alone.

Hopefully, this legislation will help to reduce those numbers.

Under ObamaCare, You MUST Have Health Insurance, Or You Will Pay A Tax...

I want to give you something to think about today as you get ready to start a new work week. Let's think about car insurance for a second. Do you remember a time when you you were not required by state law to have car insurance? I honestly don't, but I hear from those older and wiser in the tribe that this used to be the case. So, here I sit today, having been a licensed driver in the state of California for going on 19 years, and have never had an at-fault accident where my insurance company has had to pay out for an accident that was my doing, yet if I want to get behind the wheel of a car, I need to go out and buy some car insurance, otherwise I am breaking the law...even more so than normal. My alternative? Stop driving, or leave California.

With everything that is going on right now with healthcare reform, why in the world am I talking about car insurance? Well, wait for it...I'm getting there. Say HR 3200 passes, but you don't want health insurance...you just happen to be one of the people that either doesn't care enough to have it, wants to pay cash at the doctor, or God bless you, has enough money that you just don't need it. What we all know is that if you make over $350,000 a year, you're going to be one of the people paying for HR 3200, but one thing that I am sure none of us know is that if you do not have health insurance and are living legally in the United States of America, and do not enroll yourself in the public option or buy a policy through the National Exchange when they become available, you are going to be paying a tax of 2.5% of your adjusted gross income for the taxable year. I know that's a long sentence, but feel free to read it again. Just like HR 3200, there's a hidden tax in there.

There are some loopholes:
- Prove that your religion does not believe in health insurance
- Have your tax pro-rated if you are covered part of the year
- You don't have to pay the tax on dependents, regardless of their coverage
- The 2.5% tax will not exceed what the Secretary of Health and Human Services determines to be the national average health care premium cost for you

To summarize, if you're just someone who does not want health insurance and you don't want the public option, or to pick from the National Insurance Exchange, you're going to be taxed for your decision. Kind of makes it seem like if you're unemployed and not of wealthy means, they are going to force you into one of the government-run healthcare programs. You are going to be required to have health insurance just like you are required to have car insurance, otherwise, you will be paying an additional 2.5% to Uncle Sam when it is Tax Day. Your alternative? Leave the country.

Now, I know this is going to effect a very small percentage of Americans as close to 90% of us are still working and getting insurance through work, or are covered by some other government program, etc., etc., but here is just one more government-controlled thing in life.

You will soon be required to have health insurance. If we just continue to sit back and let government tell us what to do and how to live our lives, eventually, they will control everything. Never happen? I bet there were a lot of Germans saying that in 1933, too. How about instead of just drawing Hitler mustaches on everyone's pictures, we do a little research, study some history, and get the facts?

I do not want government telling me what I need to buy, what I need to drive, what I should be eating, where I should be going, and charging me a hell of a lot of taxes for a hell of a lot less freedom. Sadly, however, I think you had better get used to it America! With each passing year, government is going to force more and more upon you...

An Important Update From The Social Security Administration

The U.S. Social Security Administration has fantastic news! Straight from the insert that should have arrived with your annual statement (wonder what it costs to print and mail all of those instead of posting them online), the Social Security Administration is happy to report that by the time those of us in our 30s go to retire, we have the prospect of getting up to 78% of the benefits that we are supposed to be getting! Isn't that fantastic news?!

That means that for every $1,000 that we are supposed to get, in essence, for every $1,000 that people on Social Security are getting now, we are going to possibly get up to $780! So, when we go to retire, we just need to come up with the other $220 somewhere to make up for the $220 that was stolen from us and given to today's retirees!

Given these revelations, how about we be allowed to keep $220 of our $1,000 to invest for ourselves? Go ahead and ask the Social Security Administration that, and watch them just smile and laugh at you, crazy little taxpayer. You can't take care of yourself without big government! Why, that's just crazy. If they let you keep your $220, they'd have to cut benefits to people on Social Security today, and that just wouldn't be fair at all to them.

The burden of benefits being cut is reserved for those of you retiring after 2041, silly goose. The Social Security Administration is just going to hold their breath, close their eyes, and hope that there is some miracle between now and 2041 that will magically occur so that we can get our full benefits. Great plan, folks!

I have a fantastic idea! Why don't we put the idiots in government in charge of all of the banks and large industrial manufacturers in the land to ensure that nothing goes wrong with our pseudo-capitalist system. Oops - am I too late to stop that? Or even better, let's take our very health and well-being and let them tax us even further so they can provide us with a universal healthcare plan (I'm not making that up - there are bills in the congress right now that are going to tax you on the health insurance your employer provides to pay for health insurance for those who aren't working - a tax on families making under $250,000 a year - breaking a certain promise from a certain someone who just happens to be the leader of the free world right now). We're going to have to sit back, watch, and see what passes and what gets vetoed.

In fact, with Taxington, D.C. doing so well with managing our retirement fund, why not let them handle every aspect of our lives?

You Are Part Of The Rebellion, Like It Or Not...

For my follow-up to Tuesday's piece on the new credit card bill, I am going to bring in another movie reference because while we may be experiencing the beginning of a minor version of the collapse of all of those bank buildings like at the end of Fight Club, it is not actually coming until August 22, 2010, so until then, America is going to be feeling a bit like Lando Calrissian. Remember in Empire when Dick Cheney kept telling Lando to pray that he didn't alter the deal further? If you are carrying any credit card balances between now and when the credit card reform legislation actually forces the credit card empire to lower your interest rates to reasonable levels on August 22, 2010, you are going to feel like going back to finish your Jedi training so that you can better fight the evil credit card empire.

Think of today's credit card times in the context of the six Star Wars movies. Today, we are in the midst of Episode 5 - The Empire Strikes Back. Episodes 1-3 are folklore, bits and pieces of mythological details - times long gone that came before you that witnessed the birth of credit cards, issued with low interest rates by small local banks to consumers who always paid their balances off every month, and then witnessed the early battles between the banks and consumers as the banks grew larger and the consumers were oppressed into submission over time, accepting higher interest rates and not paying off balances anymore, until at the end of Episode 3, when the banks had become a massive multi-national credit card empire in supreme control, bending consumers to their will, those consumers still taking on ever-increasing amounts of credit, feeding the empire's growth, not necessarily against their will, but in a complacent stupor. All of this came before you, but somehow, you are paying the price for it today.

Think of Episode 4 as your own personal New Hope that spanned from the day you were granted your first credit card until May 22, 2009, the day President Obama signed the credit card reform bill into law. It was a coming of age for you, where you learned how credit worked and began to see the evil credit empire for what it really was. People offered you credit card guidance through their own painful stories, but you yourself had to experience the pain first hand before you realized that it was time to do something about this evil empire.

So, at the end of Episode 4, we as consumers all banned together and forced our leadership into doing something to fight the empire. There was a glimmer of hope about the future as Episode 4 ended on May 22, 2009, the cameras fading away from President Obama as he signed the credit card reform bill and the credits began to roll to that famous march.

But just days later, we are realizing that there was a truly fundamental flaw in our attack plan at the end of Episode 4. We didn't actually kill Dick Cheney, but simply sent him reeling into space, where he will recover and come back at us harder than ever. You are currently living in Episode 5, which will span from May 22, 2009 to February 22, 2010 and prove to be nine months of absolute pain if you are currently carrying a credit card balance. While the Credit Card Reform Bill is good and strong, it is weak and inadequate in it's first nine months, giving the credit card empire that nine months to come into compliance with its laws.

So, what do you think the empire is going to do with that nine months? This is the "painful" period that I referred to on Tuesday where if you have a credit card balance, the credit card empire is going to pull a "Capital One" on you. Switch your current record-low rates to sky-high rates for the last nine months before the laws go into effect. Consumer groups are expecting these to be the highest interest rates that we will pay in our lifetime on credit card balances.

From now until February 22, 2010, credit card consumers that are carrying a balance are going to struggle just to keep their X-wing above water and make the sky-rocketing interest payments. Interest rates are going to soar, fees are going to soar, and the evil credit card empire will have full reign to do whatever it wishes. An unbridled Karl Rove giving us all a full, long, nine months to question why in the world the politicians in Washington gave the credit card companies this nine months to comply.

Again, on Tuesday, I praised the lawmakers and President Obama for the bill, praise which was, and is still deserved, but today I join the millions of Americans who are asking why in the world Washington has given the banks nine months to comply and thrown us all to the sharks like this. The banks didn't wait nine months for their taxpayer bailout money, did they? I don't think so.

I will, still, however, give Washington credit, but always question why they agreed to this nine month window where the American consumer with a credit card balance is going to take a hard hit, no matter whether they pay their credit card bills on time or not. I just cannot imagine what would have been so difficult to include legislation that mandated that the credit card empire not be able to raise rates on customers who are paying their bills on-time during this nine month transition period.

I guess we all have nine months to figure that out, right? Much like Episode 5, we will spend this time questioning the decisions that those who came before us made, resulting in the current fight that we are in, cursing them, but knowing that a better day is on the horizon.

On February 22, 2010, the major provisions of the Credit Card Reform Bill will actually take effect. The credit card empire will no longer be able to raise rates on existing balances, charge you over-limit fees, and subject you to universal default. This is the beginning of Episode 6, the final episode, Return of The Sane. The nine months of pain will be behind us, and though some people with credit card balances are going to be paying well over 20% APR, over 30% APR perhaps, the interest rate hikes will be over. The ability for the evil credit card empire to inflict an ever-increasing amount of pain on us will have ended. Episode 6 will run from February 22 through August 22, 2010, but if you pay all of your credit card bills on time and do not default on any debt during that time period, the law (with some help from the Ewoks) will force the credit card companies to lower your interest rate shortly after August 22, 2010, back down closer to where it was on May 22, 2009.

From here until August 22, 2010, the American consumer is going to have a hard fight, but that fight will ultimately lead to a better America, and a stronger American consumer. Credit is going to be nearly impossible to get during this time and the interest rate for credit is going to shoot up into space, and we are all going to pay the price for both what we have done, and sadly, for things that we had absolutely no part in. But, on August 22, 2010, the long fight will end and we can hopefully rejoice in having made it through such a ridiculous fight that we both brought on ourselves, yet at the same time, had so little effect on as a single individual.

We can only hope that things will play out differently, but with the law signed and the dates in place, there is nothing else that we can do but sit back and go for the ride that the credit empire and the politicians have just sent us on.

Constitutional Crisis in 1876

If you think the presidential election of 2000 was ugly, you should have been around for the election of 1876.

Waged against the backdrop of Reconstruction, the race pitted Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, a reform-minded New York governor, against Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, a three-term governor of Ohio.

Amid vote-buying, intimidation, and political skullduggery of the most blatant sort, three states, Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, submitted two sets of electoral votes, one for Hayes and one for Tilden.

A constitutional crisis ensued, and Congress appointed a special election commission to sort out the disputed votes.

Then, in a backroom deal, the Republican-controlled commission asked Southern Democrats to award all 19 disputed votes to Hayes, and in return, once president, Hayes would withdraw all federal troops from the South.

The bribe was accepted by the Democrats and Hayes ended up with 185 electoral votes to Tilden’s 184. For the next four years, bitter Democrats called the new president “Rutherfraud” and Tilden “President Tilden.” Tilden called the debacle “the greatest political crime of our history.”