[ti:The United States Postal Service Warns of Default]
[ar:Mario Ritter]
[al:Economics Report]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English
[00:02.99]Economics Report.
[00:05.48]The United States Postal Service
[00:08.07]has a history
[00:09.37]as long as the nation's.
[00:11.21]The Second Continental Congress
[00:14.65]appointed Benjamin Franklin
[00:16.79]as the first Postmaster General
[00:19.03]in seventeen seventy-five.
[00:21.58]This week,
[00:23.27]current Postmaster General
[00:25.46]Patrick Donahoe
[00:26.95]brought an urgent message
[00:28.85]to a Senate committee.
[00:30.64]He told the Committee
[00:32.09]on Homeland Security
[00:33.43]and Governmental Affairs
[00:34.82]that the Post Office could need
[00:37.73]more money by the end of the month.
[00:40.22]PATRICK DONAHOE: " Without the enactment
[00:42.02]of comprehensive legislation
[00:43.21]by September 30, the Postal Service
[00:46.10]will default on a mandated
[00:47.49]5.5 billion dollar payment
[00:49.73]to the Treasury to pre-fund
[00:51.33]retirement retiree health benefits.
[00:53.28]Our situation is urgent."
[00:55.67]The Postal Service had losses of
[00:58.11]almost six billion dollars
[01:00.01]for the nine-month period
[01:02.69]ending in June.
[01:04.43]That could grow to ten billion
[01:06.77]for the year.
[01:07.93]Part of the deficit is a five
[01:10.71]and a half billion dollar payment
[01:12.80]to the federal retirement plan
[01:14.99]for postal workers.
[01:16.44]Mister Donahoe is asking Congress
[01:20.77]to approve huge changes
[01:22.56]to the Postal Service.
[01:24.75]He wants to cut over
[01:26.39]one hundred thousand workers,
[01:28.48]close thousands of post offices
[01:31.12]and end Saturday mail delivery.
[01:34.00]He says the service needs
[01:37.15]to operate more like a business.
[01:38.94]PATRICK DONAHOE: "As a self-financing
[01:40.94]entity that depends on the sale
[01:42.39]of postage for its revenues,
[01:44.39]the Postal Service requires
[01:45.73]the ability to operate more
[01:47.57]as a business does."
[01:48.78]The Postal Service is responsible
[01:50.67]for its own financing
[01:52.24]and not part of the federal budget.
[01:54.93]But it does take part
[01:57.07]in federal retirement
[01:58.37]and health plans.
[01:59.86]It says it has paid too much
[02:03.00]to federal retirement plans
[02:04.90]and wants at least seven
[02:07.11]billion dollars returned.
[02:09.00]Mister Donahoe also wants
[02:11.99]to pull the Postal Service
[02:13.43]out of the federal benefit plans.
[02:15.97]He says the service's proposals
[02:19.05]could cut twenty billion dollars
[02:21.44]by twenty fifteen
[02:23.14]and return it to profitability.
[02:26.08]John Berry is director
[02:28.73]of the federal Office
[02:30.07]of Personnel Management
[02:31.97]which supervises federal
[02:33.96]retirement and health plans.
[02:35.85]He said the Obama administration
[02:39.10]would soon announce its own plan.
[02:41.49]At the hearing, Senator
[02:44.67]Susan Collins criticized
[02:46.66]the administration
[02:47.86]for not having a plan already.
[02:50.15]Leaders of two labor unions
[02:53.32]representing postal workers
[02:55.57]have also criticized the proposed cuts.
[02:58.93]The United States Postal Service
[03:02.26]has over five hundred
[03:04.25]sixty thousand employees.
[03:05.99]It reported revenue of
[03:09.03]sixty-seven billion dollars last year
[03:11.28]-- more than either of
[03:13.17]its biggest private competitors,
[03:14.91]FedEx or UPS.
[03:17.40]But as the amount of
[03:19.69]physical mail decreases,
[03:21.43]so too have the earnings
[03:23.62]from Postal Service operations.
[03:26.11]Committee member Joseph Lieberman
[03:29.84]noted the need for change.
[03:31.73]JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: "The US Postal Service
[03:34.13]is not an 18th Century relic.
[03:36.97]It is a great 21st Century national asset.
[03:41.36]But times are changing rapidly now,
[03:44.44]and so too must the Postal Service
[03:47.63]if it is to survive."
[03:49.82]And that's the VOA Special English
[03:52.24]Economics Report.
[03:54.49]I'm Mario Ritter.
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA¾©Ïã2018ÏÂÔØ
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