United States Postal Service (USPS)

There is no good reason for the United States to continue to be stuck with a stagnant $69 billion operation with 774,000 overpaid workers and add to the fact that its a congressionally created monopoly.

As everyone knows if its fast, reliable, and cost-efficient many will pay for the service. Not with the government postal service, which is trying hard not to fall behind its already low standards. For example, the average delivery time today for a first-class letter is 1.9 days, up from 1.6 days in 1981, despite all the new technology that is available. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has conslude that the USPS "has an outdated and inflexible business model amid a rapidly changing postal landscape."

I believe that with the advent of email and other means of sending information, USPS needs to downsize and privatize in order to compete in today's world.

Highway Bill and Entitlement Spending

The President may veto his first bill soon. The reason? The Senate can't stop spending money. The Highway Bill, set to be voted on next week, is running 15 billion over its expected costs ($295 billion). The only Senator to speak forcefully on the matter was Senate Budget Committee Charman Judd Gregg (R-NH), who stated: "You have the problem of a Republican Senate running over a Republican president because we want to spend more money---or at least some members of the Senate do."

This is just another example in a long line of excess spending by Congress. The sad part of this matter is that the Highway Bill is not an entitlement and thus is something that Congress could control. The problem is that Congress is not willing to control spending in a time when the nation pays 7 percent of its fiscal budget in net interest payments. By 2015 that will increase to 10 percent.

If Congress can't control descretionary then how much faith can we place in them for fixing entitlements and/or the national debt? Do they have the stomach to cut Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, federal student loans, child nutrition programs, vocational rehabilitation, and crop subsidy programs (all are entitlement programs or entitlements in all but name only)? I doubt they do, but the fact remains that mandatory spending (entitlements) is already taking up over half the federal budget (54%) and is expected to grow to over 60 percent of the budget in 10 years.

The way out? Well Congress believes that the budget reconciliation process can force them to curb entitlement spending. As it stands, Congress has to cut $34.7 billion from the fiscal 2006 budget. I know for fiscal conservatives this may sound like a big win, but these savings only slow the growth of entitlement spending (in addition past reconciliation bills saved from 400 to 500 billion). What is needed is strong leadership on the issue of Medicare and Medicaid (the two biggest entitlement programs). Until the eligibility requirements are changed there will be no stopping the damage that these programs do to the federal budget (I must point out that one could raise fees for these programs as a means to cut costs). I hope somewhere in either political party there is a leader that can stand up and say something big needs to be done.

Good Job Goode and Pastor!!

Represenatives Virgil H. Goode (R-VA) and Ed Pastor (D-AZ) came in first and second respectively for member's allowance spending. They are each spending less than 60% of their allowance. For Goode that is roughly 686,000 out of 1,182,000 and for Pastor it is 748,000 out of 1,249,000. Good job fellows!!!

Now lets see if the top spenders, Barbara Cubin (R-WY) and Corrine Brown (D-FL), can learn some money management skills from Goode and Virgil.

Emergency Supplemental Bill

The emergency supplemental bill for funding war efforts in Iraqi was passed by a vote of 368 to 58 in the House. Only three Republicans voted against the bill. One of the three was Texan Ron Paul. I say thanks to him for standing up against government waste in the name of supporting our troops. In the bill was federal funds for tsunami relief, a noble cause, but one that should be coming from private citizen's donations, not tax dollars.

Why have a United Nations or other relief organizations that are either part or fully funded by the federal government? Cutting spending is needed in a time when the government is billions upon billions in debt. I see no need to add to the sad state of our budget by adding additional spending measures onto a noble bill. If tsunami relief can pass Congress, then it should be done as a single bill where each member has to vote for it.

Discloser Bill

I hope reports are true that Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) will introduce a bill requiring presidential administrations to disclose more information to the public. Although I don't know all of the bill's specifics, in principle, it could benefit both Congress and the American public. Let's wait and see what Waxman comes up with.