Tim Pawlenty and other conservatives give a lot of insincere lip service to honoring and supporting the U.S. Constitution and the intent of the Founding Fathers.
Except, they don't. Not really.
If you don't know the U.S. Constitution well, read about it here.
I do know the Constitution, not as a constitutional scholor or a constitutional lawyer, but as an ordinary person who has had a good education in history, including U.S. history. So my ears perked up when I heard Tim Pawlenty, who I consider an embarrassment to Minnesota, claiming he would privatize the Post Office.
Because our Constitution is very clear on the Unites States Post Office, Article 1 Section 8, the 'enumerated powers':
The Congress shall have power To
lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations; To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;—And To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
And TPaw either doesn't know or doesn't care about the Presidential Oath of Office, from Article 2, Section 1, which states:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
No, Tim Pawlenty wants to abandon the enumerated powers, and simply sell off the government of the United States as defined in the U.S. Constitution, and as decided by the citizens of the states and counties and local communities as well for that matter, to the benefit and control of rich individuals and big corporations, in the futile name of specious economic growth (in other words, not progress, but just plain greed).
Here is a marvelous video from youtube that shows you just what the reality of Pawlenty's ideas (stolen from Steve Goldsmith, not really his own) would look like:
There are just some services that government provides which are more effective than priavte industry. Private industry needs to make a profit, whereas government provides the services.
ReplyDeleteFor example, The British government attempted to use busniess solutions with the Beeching Report recommended wholesale closure of what it considered little-used and unprofitable railway lines, the removal of stopping passenger trains and closure of local stations on other lines which remained open. Unfortunately, road traffic levels grew significantly and in some areas this became close to gridlock. Furthermore, in recent years there have been record levels of passengers on the railways resulting in some of these railway closures being reversed.
As you point out, the Constitution has tasked the US government with some of these services.
I would further add that the selling of government resources was one of the factors in the panic of 1837. That should clue anyone with a brain that these are not sound policies.
I should also add that the Book Gangs of New York (and film) pointed out the downside of private fire companies. Competing companies would fight for the privilege of putting out the fire, usually while the house burned down.
ReplyDeletePrior to 1866, the city of New York was protected by a completely volunteer fire department. Some of these volunteer brigades often amounted to little more than roving bands of gangs and thugs, as depicted in the recent movie "Gangs of New York". By 1866 City Fathers recognized the critical importance of establishing a professional, well equipped and disciplined fire fighting force with credentials equivalent to those of the respected New York Police Department.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sonofthesouth.net/fire_department_of_new_york.htm
First, I live in a Broadband Dead Zone which means downloading for videos is virtually impossible, so maybe Soon-to-be-President Pawlenty said something that I did not pick up from other news sources.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I think the motivation for Mr. Pawlenty is Union-busting.
Mr. Pawlenty can easily work around the Constitutional question that you have raised. The Post Office will still operate but in a different fashion … more functions would be outsourced to private companies. I don’t know about your area, but I would not be surprised if you can buy stamps and mail packages (Priority Mail) at a local grocery store … check your bank’s ATM, and I will bet that there is a “Buy Stamps” button. Delivery is also outsourced in some areas of the country.
Many Americans probably don’t know that the Post Office is an independent agency of the government. The USPS is self-sufficient and has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s … however, it is currently borrowing money from the US Treasury to pay its deficits.
Approximately 85% of USPS employees are unionized … and some union contracts prohibit home delivery by anyone other than a union employee.
The effort for privatization has been going on for a while … here is a good history of some of the efforts … note how many of these did not pan out as cost savings. As a result, H.R. 4236, the "Mail Network Protection Act of 2007" was offered to confront some of outsourcing complaints … signing on as co-sponsors whom are still in Congress includes Minnesotans Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum, Collin Peterson and Tim Walz … but to my knowledge, it has died.
So, why does the Post Office borrow from the Treasury ?
Simple, they are one of the few organizations that are being realistic about its future costs. A 2006 postal reform law requires the agency to make accelerated prepayments for retiree health benefits (RHB). Public companies can change its retiree health benefit program as is sees fit … as many of them will do after Obamacare becomes more appealling.
USPS officials wants Congress to change the mandatory RHB pre-payments.
If the USPS did not have to pre-pay health benefits as 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) requires, at the end of 2010, the Postal Service would have made a $9 billion profit instead of being $12 billion in debt.
Healthcare is killing the country … and do you think that Soon-to-be-President Pawlenty has a plan to address that ? If a private company would take over the handling of mail, would it provide healthcare for its employees ?
Of course, the USPS could just raise rates (as private companies to all the time) …let’s face it 44cents to mail a Birthday Card is awful cheap … and I hope you saw Colbert Report which noted that once FedEX starts gets Pawlenty’s Contract that it will cost $25 at FedEx rather than 44 cents … and it will take five years of your Grandmother sending you a five dollar bill in the Birthday Card before she would have sent you enough money to pay FedEX to deliver her the Thank You Card.
CONTINUED
PART TWO
ReplyDeleteWill consumers like the Pawlenty BETTER DEAL Private Mail system ?
Will businesses like that ?
Will politicians (despite their Franked Mass Mailings) like having to pay big bucks to clutter your mailbox prior to Election Day ?
The USPS does other things besides delivering your bills and birthday cards … they process packages to our military serving all over the world … all at the same price. Postal Inspectors enforce over 200 federal laws providing for the protection of mail in investigating crimes … do you want trust how banks are giving access to your bank information to the government today … do you want FedEX employees going through your “mail”?
BTW … do you know why mail is not delivered seven days of the week ? The question of the need for Saturday delivery has been on the table for while now, but until 1912, mail was delivered on Sundays ... until various church leaders complained … and DYK that there is a town in California that has delivery on Sunday through Friday but not on Saturday because the town has a strong Seventh Day Adventist contingent.
Now, let’s give Soon-To-Be-President Pawlenty credit for broaching the subject … how much could be saved if the country decided to shutdown NASA and let the private industries do space travel (would you tell your Congressman not to “earmark” any space adventures ?) … or, how about military contractors (would you tell your Congresswoman not to “earmark” any mercinary soldiers ?) …
Conversely, how do you feel about the outsourcing of food inspectors (the House Republicans have cut funding) … or privatizing Medicare (once again, the House Republicans have passed their budget plan assuming that) … or outsourcing of EPA, OSHA or other inspection funtions ….
That’s the debate that Soon-To-Be-President Pawlenty needs to have with the American people … ‘cause if you vote for him and the Republican agenda, that is what you will get.
Candidate Pawlenty is blowing his Political Dog Whistle ... telling hardcore Conservatives that he will confront unions and cut government ... it's a campaign ploy ... but I hope it doesn't work ... as I can envision a Pawlenty BETTER DEAL Private Mail system … heck, I don’t have Broadband, because no business can justify the costs … so under the BETTER DEAL Private Mail, I will only lose service.
My impression Mac is that Pawlenty is not talking about outsourcing the Postal System services, but discontinuing it entirely, and having the very libertarian position that each and every citizens (and as you point out, business) has to contract for those services themselves, individually with a private business.
ReplyDeleteI agree that our postal rates may need to be increased from time to time - and I would encourage that for all levels of delivery, first class, third class/bulk, etc. so as to pay for itself or nearly do so.
That and any of the other government services enumerated in that part of the constitution should not and I suspect CANNOT be discontinued as Pawlenty proposes.
Outsourcing is a disaster, it rarely if ever results in either equivalent service or savings, and it tends to be fraught with fraud and far less acountability.
I don't think TPaw is going to get very broad-based support for his proposals. I'm sorry you couldn't watch the videos; they were I think particularly important to this post.
If you get out of your dead zone anytime soon, I hope you get a chance to watch them!
Thanks for your comments - and you too Laci!
First off let me say I don't think we should do away with the USPS. I really do not see how FedEx or UPS could deliver the mail better at the same price. That said the part of the constitution you pointed out says congress has the power to do these things, it does not say Congress cannot delegate them to others. I do think we need to look at every part of government to see where we can save money. The government just costs way too much right now and I don't think you would find anyone who thinks it is operating efficiently.
ReplyDeleteHi Ttucker,
ReplyDeleteGood point -- First off let me say I don't think we should do away with the USPS. I really do not see how FedEx or UPS could deliver the mail better at the same price.
I don’t think that FedEX would want the business … nor would their customers.
People need to understand why the Post Office is losing money … I just wrote a
commentary on the MN Political Roundtable urging people to contact their Representative in the House to support pending legislation that would correct the overfunding of pensions … which is the real reason why the PO is losing money.
Let’s remember that “Soon To Be President” Pawlenty also is targeting AMTRAK … but if you are old enough to remember Penn Central and why Nixon and Congress created Amtrak, you know that Penn Central went bankrupt … for those of us that do not use Amtrak may see it as an unnecessary subsidy … but without public transportation, workers would have to use cars to get around … clogging the roads … and the roads are supported by tax dollars.
BTW, if you interested, I evaluated “Soon To Be President” Pawlenty’s foreign policy speech …