retirement system. i might be wrong on that, they sure as hell threw a lot of toward it, i blame congress, the postal service is can with the it people they have and they really do a wonderful job. again. host: joe brings up congress, you talked about them in terms of importance of employment, can be a bit of whooping boy for members of congress, too. yeah.: yeah, the relationship between congress and the postal service mildly.y, to put it postal service is supposed to be cover ess, supposed to its cost, provide services in a manner, but ent meanwhile, the postal service is a creature of our democratic mean, it didn't get created in the private sector, it was created by representatives in congress. you see the postal service being pulled in different directions, it is not congressmen and congresswoman are peculiar with peculiar ideas

postal service should do, what they are doing s reflecting what their constituents want f. constituents want something like the postal service to carry live scorpions, which the postal service does, congress asks the to do it.vice it is an uneasy thing to run a enterprise with a democratically elected public behind it. host: comments and questions on twitter. james says, deliver the mail a week, monday, thursday and saturday, wild and wonderful asks kevin kosar, what any, are regulations on other ex?riers such as ups or fed guest: oh, well, like any other regulations ject to that a government entity would not be subject to. from ints you often hear private company system that heir delivery trucks can be ticketed for parking illegally, trucks.ith mail

property is taxable, postal a perties are not, which is localities.tates and kim is here, welcome. caller: hi there. to work for the post gms, i don't gan know if you know about that place. they had great training there. was a technician, i was there when the ally simms were there, you know about them, i had a question, by the way, the post office in my line is almosthe always out the door when i go there, i don't know how they are hurting, but maybe that is just my town. don't a question that think you can answer, i thought being a sort of employer of the

government, i remember being at post office and stand in lane. i was close by. there, cnn were on. on. and -- watch a station you can't stand. that?would you say about i'm going to go so you can answer that. thank you. guest: the post office is a political conflicts happen. many post offices put up peopleion screens to put acified, cork boards, people tack up various advertisements and such and inevitably there is a political scrum. the t.v. gets put to a station somebody doesn't like, somebody

that others ng up find offensive. it's a difficult situation and remedied unless you decide to keep the post sterile environment from anything other than advertisements. president of policy public policy at r street nstitute, talking about the .ostal service piece about loss over the years, u.s. postal service reporting financial losses, regulatory, ding could help on path toward delivered 589 in 2017 than the previous fiscal year. business th rate, sector routinely seen double-digit growth. delivered 5 billion fewer pieces of mail in fiscal year

2017s, 3.6% decrease. the post master saying this ecline significant financial strain on the organization told reporters on a call. also that the -- it's going to mean a raise in across the l rates board and another year of financial losses? guest: the postal service does not have a freehand to raise rates, it puts in a commission look over the request and the idea is that postal service is monopolist and don't want monopolists to raise prices as they see fit, in the application approved penny.d -- go up a pretty much mailers across the board, shipping parcels, magazines, what have you are going to see some increases, hich the postal service is

pleased with. revenue.to get more host: elizabeth on the bronx, on rate increases going back to 1885, sorry for folks on the radio, but on t.v., you'll be see how the price of a stamp has risen over the years. york, go ahead. caller: happy belated thanksgiving. have two statements. the think tank in washington, d.c., the think a think tank, the all the junk ween

advertisements, booklets, pamphlets, all coming in at bulk rate. hat is the difference, they ex, to ot pay ups or fed , the holidays il all year long and especially if address, forget it, it floods, it is flooding, this mail men rting our because this is tons of extra actually nobody is paying bulk rate. charging f you start these companies with all the advertisements, which are huge, of mail, you will see that the post office will money and mail men or happier.ill be much thank you and have a great holiday. bye-bye. host: thank you, elizabeth.

guest: yeah, it's a question of supply and demand. the big bulk mail companies will that if you raise the price per piece, they will continue to migrate their advertisements online. and the postal service is reliant upon junk mail, one of the kind of difficult happened over at the last 20 or 30 years, the has become ce brand increasingly associated with junk mail, because there is less letters andmail and correspondence going through it and people more and more to mailbox ing having to weed through mail they don't want, i think what the dreams of is future where they are carrying less stuff, getting higher parcel and that is in and package business. but the challenge with that is public policy question. should the postal service carry parcels and packages since the sector already does it? are we comfortable with withnment agency competing

private delivery companies? that is something congress is going to have to fight out in future. host: we've saw a piece this politico.com, the lost genius of the post office for two centuries the humble seeming of new ideas.bed what happened? guest: when you look at this and did you ut this, what see? guest: well, i saw some amazing things. i want to thank the folks at museum for postal providing great images we used in there. there were developments that are mind-blowing, like delivering mail in major u.s. cities under tic tubes new york city and philadelphia, mail would rocket through and mail carriers take and tlifr as to hauling down the street in trucks. over time, unfortunately, the service, as i see it, pressures.to a lot of

there was political pressure against innovation that would ome from congress, innovation threatens jobs. there were internal union if you are gain, talking about replacing human beings with sorting machines, are threatening to take away jobs, there was long-term being monopolist, monopolists do not feel great innovate unlike companies privately competing. durham, north carolina, robert, good morning. caller: good morning. am i on? host: you're on, go ahead, robert. aller: okay, look, i'm retired postal employee, happily. i listen to all you said on this program and ea let's go back to the real beginning. started with darrell isa, who eliminate the postal

service, that is why the postal ervice was put under the mandate. the mandate was attempt to make the postal service fail. no other government aigence and i'll bet you, you are not equired to pre-fund yourself health care system. was deliberate attempt to make the postal service fail. only stal service is delivery service that delivers any and everywhere, a lot of bulk get tired of the mail, but there are a lot of the bulk t appreciate mail. mandate, and if we never, the postal service never been put under the mandate, we would never have had these problems in the beginning. appreciate response, the call. guest: let me gently disagree. there on the hill when postal reform was moving in the

culminating in 2006, nobody wanted to destroy the postal service or make it go would be unbelievably self-defeating, not least, how summons out? jury companies everywhere in darrell isa ere comes from, are using the postal service. want to docian would that? health the retiree benefits funding was a well 've innerte -- well-intentioned thing. peaking at revenue and everything was going great, this expensive policy change looked like something they could handle at the time. turned out, it was a mistake on that count. it was set too high fit had been set low, there would be less the postalressure on service. host: comment on the discussion postal y on twitter,

service lives on junk mail and americans live on junk food and junk politics.n toledo, ohio, dianne, welcome, go ahead. hi, i'm a conservative inancially, i like to see tax dollars go down, more tax dollars being provided for things. like to see solutions for just about anything and that includes the post office. that the guy a gave on twitter about the monday, wednesday, friday delivery. had been thinking about the same thing, but still including and saturday, ay basically break up the service. o one group gets mail every other day and another group gets it the other days. an opportunity to eventually reduce staff, but you on that twitter, so i was wondering if you could, ideas for solutions to the problems. guest: sure thing.

postal service, as far as employee cohort has been who ing number of people work there. i think in the last seven or eight years they've trimmed 175,000 employees, had people them.e and not replace they are doing what they can to reduce those costs. now the trick with trying to balance the postal service books about the revenue si side. postal service do, we think in terms of we the public, i want mail three or four days a week, many members of public say that. customer of the postal ervice is big mailers, folks sending the mail pieces every year, figuring out arrange works for them, they are willing to purchase the service is the real trick. alexander itter, wj tweets, postal employees are

government swamp, entitled, does the postal appropriations from congress? guest: no, the postal service is self-funded, money it gets from to folks and delivering stuff. it is very different from vast government other agencies. ost: bert in portland, oregon, good morning. caller: yes, isn't congress to let the post office raise price of postage and that losing money?e guest: yeah, the law has limited postal service freedom to raise rates since 2006. they can only raise rates basically at the level of that, on, but prior to the postal service did not have a freehand to raise rates had to go through a deliberative process like judicial trial, people would convene

before the postal regulatory commission and offer testimony never ht things out and knew when rates would go up or not, pretty chaotic thing. the r evin kosar with street institute, for this and ther issues, follow him on twitter at kevin kosar, thanks for being with us this morning. thank you. host: more "washington journal" ahead, we will wrap up with open you, , love to hear from democrats, 202-748-8000. epublicans, 202-748-8001 and independents, and all others, 202-748-8002. be right back. >> saturday 9:15 on c-span ormer presidential speech writers for president nixon to p.m., nd sunday 6:30 dr. anthony iden, how zip code impacts health.

t.v. on c-span2, saturday 9 p.m. eastern daily aller news foundation editor-in-chief christopher donald," "art of the nd on sunday, 11 a.m., author rebecca fraser, on her book, mayflower," on american history t.v. on c-span3 saturday eastern, penn state niversity history professor on the u.s. capital art and architecture and sunday 9:10 p.m., the ground-breaking ceremony, the dwight d. eisenhower memorial in washington, d.c. the c-span on networks. >> c-span student cam documentary is underway. and nts are busy at work sharing their experience through twitter.

it's not too late to enter, the 2018.ine is january 18th, we're asking students to choose a position of the u.s. a video ion and create illustrating why it is important to you. all ompetition is open to middle school and high school $100,000 grades 6-12, in cash prizes will be awarded. the grand prize of $5000 will go to the student or team with the best overall entry. information, go to our website, studentcam.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we'll open up the phone lines and get comments on any policy public issue or news issue you are following this after thanksgiving. 202-748-8000 for democrats. republicans.for

all others, 202-748-8002. look for tweets on twitter at c-spanwj. for capitol hill producer, al orting about senator franken, who issued a statement tribune, franken's pokesman says the minnesota democratic senator will speak with the media on sunday from front page bune, this morning in the "new york deal, flynn'snt of lawyer cut off talks, saying t.flynn, r michael former national security advisor legal d the president's team they could no longer discuss the special counsel nvestigation according to four people involved in the case, an -- flynnn mr. nin flin officials.ting with

the times writes that agreement terminated, the four people said in defense, lawyers during formation investigations, but they must stop stop, it is unethical for together.o work stiunder investigation the notification led about trump's lawyer to believe mr. having seen as significant criminal exposure, has at the least begun with mr. mueller about cooperating.

let's fwet to calls. lee in grand gorge, new york, lee on the republican line, welcome. caller: hi. i wanted to comment on your previous guest concerning white in puerto rico. i have been hearing for weeks news his blatant fake concerning white fish and our representative, that it was nefarious back-door thing, that is why they were chosen. our guest pointed out that puerto rico interviewed several electric companies who wanted money up front and they didn't them, but to give white fish came in and said they would work for it. anything r mentions like that and now on one america ews, they said white fish has een rehired and they will be and ng for the next year, news social security white fish

has two employees and brought in people to work on this and the results ll you and the reasons for this happening. i was upset about that. , we asked themco to become a state, now they are apart and want to become a state, thank you. pamona, new york, independent line. say that , i want to any -- kellyanne conway and the would rather have harasser as a senator, so they could pass the bill for i think is a ich disgrace, so you know what, i personally fit was up to me, both of those people would government, period.

host: kellyanne conway mentioned n a front-page piece over the weekend addition of the "u.s.a. oday," the headline, u.s. waging tech war against opioid epidemic, they write every year go to s of americans doctors complaining of pain and heir doctors ask them to rate their degree of discomfort on 0-10 scale or using a range of boms.y face sim the doctor has to take their word for it and all too often, power sxfl ribe addictive opioid pain killer. standing and subjective way of measureing and treat i starting addiction crisis that killed 64,000 people year, one thing we heard from many physicians is that the ain specific indicator contributed to the crisis, kellyanne conway, president advisor on crisis, we don't think health care by good idea.

the piece says next month the national institutes of health proposals for $4 million in small business grants o develop a device or technology to objectively measure pain. "u.s.a. today."com. virginia, good morning to allen, republican. caller: good morning, sir. my name is allen, i'm calling democrats -- the refers to themselves as it on tic, you refer to your, when you said franken, a democratic senator and we -- as far as i'm concerned, have a democratic republic, they cannot capture the name.ratic host: it is the name of the party, sir. democratic, that is the name of party, the democratic party, the democratic national committee, the republican party, the party. you there, allen? okay, thank you. host: thank you.

paul up next in boilstown, massachusetts, independent line. caller: yeah, i have two comments, trying to find information on the proposed tax internet, so i can ead it myself and i can't seem to find that information, we don't need republicans or to try to explain the tax plan to us if we can read it ourselves. i have one more comment, i just learned that the tax plan plan is going to school of the graduate tuition waivers and i think this -- for devastating and -- uate students and is a -term plan for this country. you go to c-span.org

al bills, gression they will take it up when they come back. it is still there, but i suspect it is, c-span.org, chronicle and you can go straight to the source there. joyce is up next, in durham, democrat's line. caller: yes. the ld like to respond to person that said on twitter that spoiled ployees were and overpaid. my grandson went to work for the postal service as a temporary for $16 an hour. miles per dayo 15 milese day had to walk 22 a day because someone called in sick. would like to see that person

walk that many miles per day for that kind of pay. that, joyce.ate issue. the tax is now a 50 deduction sticking point, brook richardson teaches english as second language, mostly lower income students, turns to her pocket students, lost track of how many pencils, notebooks and glue sticks she buy necessary a year. spent $500 last year. she said it is worth it, her talking hts up when about her kids and the ah-ha moments of which come when she textbook.rom the what has been helpful is that she's able to deduct $250 from taxable income for the extras she buys for her lassroom, small help congress created in 2002 for teachers who and the and beyond,"

educator expense deduction is a sticking point in the republican debate with the house and senate taking two wildly different directions. bill would o.p. tax scrap that educator deduction, the senate dpoept tax plan would double it to $500. don in maryland, good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to comment about that entleman that was on about the postal service? host: yes. people i'm one of the who do the mail advertisements n addresses on advertisements and mailing them and i have permits in various post offices states, e different three different states, in fact. the post office, their roblem is their own problem, they created it, their employees created it. like the lady was just talking about it, the one walking on the road, the post all, they got in post master positions and didn't

know what was going on, didn't rules.eir own i came along and told them how to do the saturation mailings referred to it and philadelphia main post office on billboards -- big signs up, the cowboy system, how it works, blah, blah, blah. people that do mailings put the individual addresses on with, post office comes up priet idea they don't have to have the address on there local postal patron and all the printers who do not addressing equipment for good mailing systems, they stuff and print the give it out and post office and mail it out, no address on there. unions come along, the postman, building in -- i know what i'm talking about.

the at mail, that is what il and put in proper recept recepticel. patron, he don't even know where to put the mail. he is not responsible, he can the mail, hot summer day, 100 pieces, not saying they do, take them and heave them in the trash can and not a thing the post office can prepared il is not properly. host: open phones on "washington bud next in r from myrtle beach, south carolina. aller: how you doing this morning? host: fine, thank you. caller: i want to touch on this is bigger problem than roy moore, this young girl situation. all of the states need to laws mine laws, consent in 30 of the states, a

girl at 16 years old can choose to marry or date whoever she wants to. and two in 30 of states with pa onsent, kansas and massachusetts, she can decide ith parent's consent at age 12 and the rest of the state, 17 states, age is 30 where re's 17 states consent is age 16 and this has to stop. hampshire, age 13 for girls and 14 for boys. to be change made at local and state level, this is but in 1970, the law was 0-year-old man could date a girl 16 and it would be alabama, y legal and particularly, that is one of the states and in 17 states with 14, they can , at date or marry. host: new york times this on the with news

political television front, radio writist joining fox news, fox news prime time tiltedws prime top -- the adding announced another hard-line conservative, mark of the most prominent right wing radio host will host a weekly sunday show in february. the "new york times" writes his "life, libertyam, be -- economics and of course emphasize americanism, our founding principles, our constitution and declaration of independence. bruce in california, hi, bruce. good morning, sir. host: good morning. caller: i would like to speak mr. moore.

it's too bad that the people of money, george bse and people can take women that are 14 years ago, say half a million dollars why don't you ay this guy dated me and all this. nobody thinks about it, talks about it. it makes me sick. all day e and listen long tis all because they don't 2016 election went. so, i think someone should this, investigate real tough and get to the bottom of it and find out what money and still more out there, i'm sure they are paid million dollars, jeff soros, nothing, chicken feed. bend, james next up, south indiana on democrat's life. morning.

caller: 64,000 americans die due to opioid abuse, how many would the people in excruciating pain, how many will if they don't get pain medicati medication, crawl into bed, ball, give sxup pain.die in anyway, good website for those uninsured health care coverage, underinsured, for national health program. maybe bring those guys onboard c-span for an interview. pnhp.org estimate americans underinsured for health care, they estimate number one cause america is y in medical bills. the website is a good website, u.s. top health insurers, c.e.o. salaries and

never call itu'll obamacare again if you look at the website and see the people -- gouging you for health insurance. helmsley from united health care. website?at is the www.pnhp.org. physicians for national health program. their brother organization, and plenty of reason for this, www.madashelldoctors.com. health care will never be what america, while we have world health organization, maybe get somebody on your show from there, america ranks 39 out of 40 in the world for health care systems. ost: appreciate that input, james. let's hear from warren, michigan, up next, paul, hello there. caller: good morning. host: morning.

caller: i'm calling about the u.s.p.s., i think it is going downhill, the service has been errible for the last years and years. i would depend more on fed ex, ups. host: you demend more on fed ex and ups? trust yes, i wouldn't the post office with a package, they should just be delivering mail and no one wants that bulk mail either. trust et in boxes with the post office with ait, they had lighter load, they would have a lot easier job. your paul, do you pay bills by mail? them, but ew of mainly all online. host: thanks for the call. open phones next 10 minutes or so, we started the program talking about black friday and our view on the economy, whether it was pessimistic or on the first shopping day of the holiday season. daily minor in kingman, arizona, headline courtesy of the museum.

biggest sales of the year from minor, stores such as walmart open thursday night for to beat the want rush for door-buster deals and cyber monday, increasing share revenue, black friday has lost a little luster and there as been movement of consumer backlash against sacrifice and family time to fight traffic, to save a fewness ucks, that from the daily minor. nd on the democrat's line is mike. caller: how you doing? goes, as the economy president obama's economy, the dodger hasn't pass good bills regarding the economy consecutive more quarters of growth than common obama had that a couple times, too, the only reason that is 3%, the global economy, everybody is doing great now. they weren't doing great under

and they are deciding to around. the stock market, obama gallon down as greatest stock market took it of all time, from what it was when he came in 600 and quadrupled it of people ade a lot rich. as far as the post office is them, they do ove have some flaws, but where else $.48?u mail a card for hen they have temporary people come in, it isn't good, but all in all, it's a great organization. thank you very much. host: thank you. still a lot of work ahead for remaining weeks in december, but washington imes wrapping up with view toward retirement as the first comes n of the 115th term to a close here at the end of

the year. .o.p. retirement democrats, they write, sally parson saying house republicans are seeing early wave in retirement, from the party's longest-serving members and others who appear fed up with partisanship on capitol next looking for shift in year's elections, 25 incumbents have announced they intend to resign or run for another office, three have already left or plan to leave before their term is up, with 10 preparing to run for ither governor or senate seat, although the numbers aren't record setting, the level of way out is the striking, representative bob incumbent and chairman of the house judiciary committee and representative lamar smith 30-year incumbent and past chairman of the judiciary of the e, current chief science committee is leaving and is hensarling.

each is finishing their tenure wayhairman, they are making for new blood. charlie dent of pennsylvania, veteran credited his retirement decision to intense political climate. larry in pueblo, colorado, good morning. hey, morning. host: you're on the air, go ahead. caller: good morning. host: morning. caller: i was wondering about your 2.7 billion dollars that post office is in debt this year. o, how do they pay their employees? where is this money coming from? host: very good question, i can't answer it and our guest has gone. thanks for the question, larry. on the postal service note, piece we didn't get to in today's business and finance section of the "wall street saying the united

postal service is pressuring etailers and retailers are contend withing new challenge as holiday shopping season heats shipping fees during the busiest weeks. "wall street journal" writes ups surcharge on packages shipped to homes around black friday and the week before hoping to persuade companies to send orders outside of peak periods or make more money. retailers, ommerce large and small, to consider other delivery options, such as u.s. postal service, passing additional cost to ustomers or delaying shipments to cheaper times. janet, good morning in west virginia, independent line. janet, make sure you mute your set.vision go ahead with your question or comment. janet in west virginia, go ahead. we lost her. is in frederick, maryland,

independent line. welcome. hi, good morning. i enjoy the show, you give good perspective and i really enjoy headlines and topics you pick. n-- hing that fist fascinated me was the part with n. this climate with the education system being a disaster, in particular with espect to american history, i think he will give a really unique perspective and it is interesting that we'll learn something about the truth history.r he's very knowledgeable about the constitution and the law, i hink that is a good thing for all americans and also want to post th respect to the office, we the people end up for that. god bless and thank you for having me on. you. thank allen on the republican line. caller: hi. wanted to let the country

now that the va is torturing veterans, forcing them to commit suicide. host: allen, what do you mean by that? ou say forcing them to commit suicide? veteran. am a i use v.a., their health care, -- i ouple years refused am in veteran. i pain constantly. pain ill not give me medication unless i give up my rights. host: sorry to hear that, appreciate you weighing in with opinion, actually begin tomorrow's "washington journal" talking about the overall opioid crisis, for people affected by the crisis, we'll be joined tomorrow on "washington journal" by jesse mcanic, contributor to the up is, for tomorrow,huffington post, comina wood from heritage program programs and ense the state of the u.s. military

and nicole monroe, c.e.o. of the national association of free and charitiable clinics talking clinics state of free and u.s. health care, that fwining tomorrow morning at 7:00 eastern on "washington journal." we'll see you then, have a great weekend. >> professional athletes and health experts discuss preventing traumatic brain injuries. then a discussion on electing the president using the electoral college versus the popular vote, followed by form on the future of conservatism.

members on thec energy and commerce committee recently held a forum on brain injuries. formerstified along with nfl players and family members on their experiences. this is two hours and 45 minutes.