e-Team Report, Aug. 6, 2012

60 House Bills to Name Post Offices, Zero to Fix Mail Service

Recently, there has been much to say about the House’s inability to consider real postal reform.  Last week, APWU President Cliff Guffey took to the editorial page of the New York Times to decry the House’s unwillingness to address the root causes of postal debt and instead focus on odious legislation such as H.R. 2309.

While the Postal Service’s finances have been pushed nearly to the brink by years of congressionally mandated prefund payments, the House has taken no sustentative steps to fix this manufactured crisis.  

So while USPS considers drastic cost-cutting measures to stay afloat, what has the House done instead of fixing the prefund mandate?  Well, in the last 18 months, they have been tackling the important issues, such as introducing a whopping 60 bills to rename post offices. 

To read more about the House’s misplaced priorities on postal legislation, please click here.

House Passes Bill to Fire Tax-Delinquent Federal, Postal Workers

On July 31st, the House passed a bill (H.R. 828) that could get federal and postal workers fired if they are behind on their federal taxes.  

The bill is targeted only at federal and postal workers and stipulates that “persons having seriously delinquent tax debts shall be ineligible for Federal employment.”  It would not apply to federal contracting jobs or other private-sector work that is paid for with federal funds.

Perhaps acknowledging that almost all federal employees pay their taxes, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), a supporter of H.R. 828, conceded that the bill is “almost pure symbolism.”

Speaking of the recently passed bill, APWU Legislative and Political Director Myke Reid said, “Families that are struggling in a depressed economy to meet their financial obligations – often through no fault of their own – could now lose their only source of income, which strangely enough could have helped to pay the outstanding debt.”

To read more about the H.R. 828, please click here. 

Romney’s Tax Plan for Working Families: Pay Up

Quick question: are you and your family millionaires?  If so, great news!  Mitt Romney’s tax plan could save you an estimated $87,000 a year!

If yours is a working family, however, the picture is far less rosy.  According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, to pay for Mitt Romney’s tax cuts for the top 5% of Americans, the rest of us will need to pay an average of $500 more in taxes every year.

To read more about the Tax Policy Center’s analysis of Mitt Romney’s lopsided tax plan, please click here.

Gotta Vote

Are you registered to vote? Do you have all the materials necessary to vote?  Are you sure?  

Given the recent flurry of new voting laws across the country, it can be hard to keep track if you are all set to vote.  Depending on your locality, your polling place might have moved since the last time you voted or your state’s voting laws may have changed.  You don’t want to wait until Election Day to find out!

A new website put together by the Obama campaign, gottavote.org, can help you get registered to vote, find your polling place, and print off a checklist of things you and your family will need to cast your votes on November 6th.

To get the up to date facts about voting in your state, please click here.