"The 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement
Act" (PAE) mandates the United States Postal Service (USPS) to
fund “first class” health benefits for postal workers seventy-five years in
advance. Today, the USPS is bankrupt, sending away workers and threatening to
discontinue Saturday service. Three Democrats co-sponsored the PAE, including
Santa Monica Bay Congressman Henry Waxman.
The USPS is closing post offices around the
country, including Santa Monica’s Fifth Street Post Office. While Santa Monica activists have cheered Congressman Waxman because he wrote
letters protesting the closure of the New Deal-era Post Office, the turn of
events which has sent the USPS from thriving to striving to barely surviving,
resides not just with the cutting competition, but the legislation with
Congressman Waxman’s stamp of approval, largely because the postal worker labor
unions “rang him twice” with major contributions.
Like a rabid dog attacking the mailman,
Congressman Waxman spent hours picking on Big Tobacco CEOs. He investigated
steroid abuse in baseball. He investigated lead in toys instead of invigorating
the Brentwood VA. Because he sponsored legislation hastening its decline,
Waxman has pushed the envelope of legislative neglect.
The declining USPS, and the imminent closure
of the Fifth Street Post Office, are due in large part to Congressman Henry Waxman’s
“special delivery” to special interests. Instead of giving Waxman a piece of
their mind (or their mail), Santa Monica residents should throw up their hands,
“go postal”, and stamp “return to sender” on Congressman Waxman, who refuses to
respect taxpayers, veterans, or postal workers.
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