postal service. if you look at some old maps of america, you see that a lot of the roads that we use today started out as colonial post roads. as our nation pushed west before the railroads were built, the post office created the pony express to keep america connected with its frontiers. and the post office subsidies for air mail in the early days of aviation helped jump-start the fledgling airline industry. through parts of four centuries now the postal system has actually helped make as a nation, connecting the eric and people to one another, moving commerce and culture coast-to-coast and to all points in between. postal service has also bound the individual towns and neighborhoods together with the local post office often serving as the center of civic life. over the years, the post office has grown very large. today the united states postal service is the second-largest employer in the united states, second only to walmart. and with 32,000 post offices, it has more domestic retail outlets than wa

postal service. while magazine deliveries are also down also because of competition with the internet and the recession, 90 percent of all periodicals, about 300 million paid subscriptions per year worth billions of dollars to the publishing and advertising industries and bringing about the employment of millions of people are still delivered by the postal service. only the post office will go that last mile to ensure delivery throughout the country to everyone's address, and even using the grand canyon and snowshoes in alaska. last year, just to show the diversity, and the american people know this, last year the postal service process to over six and a half million passport applications. right now there is no other federal agency with the national presence that is ready or able to take on that task. now, why are we here today? before the homeland security and governmental affairs committee became the homeland security and governmental affairs committee it was the government affairs or government op

postal service.u look at some old maps of america, you see that a lot of the roads that we use today started out as colonial post roads. as our nation pushed west before the railroads were built, the post office created the pony express to keep america connected with its frontiers. and the post office subsidies for air mail in the early days of aviation helped jump-start the fledgling airline industry. through parts of four centuries now the postal system has actually helped make as a nation, connecting the eric and people to one another, moving commerce and culture coast-to-coast and to all points in between. postal service has also bound the individual towns and neighborhoods together with the local post office often serving as the center of civic life. over the years, the post office has grown very large. today the united states postal service is the second-largest employer in the united states, second only to walmart. and with 32,000 post offices, it has more domestic retail outlets than walmart,

be drawn back and returned to the postal service allowing the postal service to pay down their very conservative retirement schedule for the retiree benefits. very conservative approach. but here as i said before the three things the auto industry needed to do. there were three things the postal service needs to do and the question is are we going to let them? i'm not interested in laying off you or anyone else lead off the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of postal the employees but i think that you resist by about a quarter of the last six or seven years that's a lot of people and maybe 200,000 or so you have about another 100,000 folks that will probably leave through attrition and people retire and say that's enough i'm ready to go on with my life and about 120,000 or so who if incentivized would have encouraged to retire would actually encourage or retire and the question is are we going to make sure we have the resources and the cash to incentivize those people but run the numbers and think about this just run the numbers for what it cost to incentivize 120,000 peopl

postal service.look at some old maps of america, you see that a lot of the roads that we use today started out as colonial post roads. as our nation pushed west before the railroads were built, the post office created the pony express to keep america connected with its frontiers. and the post office subsidies for air mail in the early days of aviation helped jump-start the fledgling airline industry. through parts of four centuries now the postal system has actually helped make as a nation, connecting the eric and people to one another, moving commerce and culture coast-to-coast and to all points in between. postal service has also bound the individual towns and neighborhoods together with the local post office often serving as the center of civic life. over the years, the post office has grown very large. today the united states postal service is the second-largest employer in the united states, second only to walmart. and with 32,000 post offices, it has more domestic retail outlets than walmart, s

i mine, the postal service is big. postal service, they handle 40% of the world's card and letter mail. pretty big. last year did they bring in any bucks? you better believe they did. they brought in $67 billion in 2010. remember, i want you to know this, zero. they received zero, i repeat, zero tax dollars. but republicans have been on a mission to get rid of it since the year 2006 when they passed an unbelievable lame duck session law. today postal workers and allies are fighting back. we'll talk to the president of the american postal workers union, and i'll tell you how it will hurt america if it survives. stay with us. so easy, you just need campbell's cream of mushroom soup to make them and a hungry family to love them. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. and a hungry family to love them. [ boy ] hey, i thought these were electric? uh, it is, yeah, it's a chevy volt. so what are you doing at a gas station? well it still takes gas to go farther. but you're not getting gas. true. not this time. uh, don't hav

i mine, the postal service is big.l service, they handle 40% of the world's card and letter mail. pretty big. last year did they bring in any bucks? you better believe they did. they brought in $67 billion in 2010. remember, i want you to know this, zero. they received zero, i repeat, zero tax dollars. but republicans have been on a mission to get rid of it since the year 2006 when they passed an unbelievable lame duck session law. today postal workers and allies are fighting back. we'll talk to the president of the american postal workers union, and i'll tell you how it will hurt america if it survives. stay with us. so what's it going to be? eenie, meanie, miney... or more. shop less. get more. make one call to an allstate agent. our neighbors putting their lives on the line. and when they rely on a battery, there are firefighters everywhere who trust duracell. so, look for these special packs to see how you can help your local volunteers. duracell. trusted everywhere. >>> good to have you back with us tonight. this

called save america's postal service dot org. the postal unions have gotten together and they'll be holding rallies in all 50 states and the district of columbia. you can go on the their web site, save america's postal service dot org. tuesday september 27th. the locations will be announced two days from now. >> stephen: are you sure they're going the happen? what if it rains or sleets or snows at night? >> funny you should mention that. i worked for the post office for 20 years. there were blizzards. there were hurricanes. and we opened a day or two afterwards as most, whereas my internet service provider recently was down for a week in our area code. i was calling india every week, calling tech support trying to find out when i would be hooked up. the post office kept delivering the mail. [cheering and applause] >> stephen: they will be missed. phil rube, you thank you so much for joining me. "there's always work at the post office." we'll be right back. [cheering and applause] [cheerin] >> stephen: welcome back, everybody. tha

the postal service. you mean to tell me after 235 years of a successful run to helping americans communicate with the truth, all of a sudden this congress back in 2006 is going to decide we're going to change everything? no. it's all about the money, it's all about going after and attacking unions, and it's all about destroying a great institution in this country that they think they're going to be able to privatize later on down the road. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question. will republicans be successful in killing the post office? text a for yes, text b for no to 622639. nbc.com will bring you the results later in the show. what can this congress do? we're talking about 125 jobs on the chopping block right now. you heard isa. he thinks it's a human problem. counselor lynch has introduced hr 251 to eliminate the 75-year pension obligation. congressman, good to have you with us tonight. >> good to be with you, ed. >> i want to make sure america gets this story, be

future of the postal service. but next, a discussion about washington gridlock. we will be right back. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> now get regular updates on what is on the c-span networks with c-span now on twitter, a quick program information and which event our lives and links to help you watch. it is easy to sign up. it just go to twitter.com/ cspannow. >> he founded several labor unions and represented the socialist party of america as a candidate for president, running five times. the last time from prison. eugene debs lost but the changed political history. one of the 14 men featured in the new weekly series "the contenders." live from his home in indiana, friday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. it a preview about him on the special website for the series, c-span.org/thecontenders. >> you should always start with an assumption if a politician or a ceo is saying something, they are not telling you the truth. they may be telling you

postal service.et's begin with how many union workers you represent.. >> guest: we represent approximately 220,000. we have 250 some thousand in about two dozen active right no. we represent the clerks that word for windows, that sort the mail, the drivers, the mechanics, and the maintenance employees. host: there is a lot of debate about the future of the postal service. congressman darrell issa has legislation to reform it. senator john mccain has introduced a companion legislation similar to that legislation. are you willing to make concessions, and what are they? guest: we just went to negotiations and made a lot of compromises. representative lynch has a bill in congress which has 220 code- sponsors, -- co-sponsors, which will reform the post office. on the other side, senator carpenter has introduced legislation that would support the postal service. john mccain's rubberstamp of darrell issa's bill will help destroy the post office and layoff toyota thousand people. host: what are the concessio

again all postal funds. no tax payor money involved. >> ifill: this would mean that postal employees in order to keep their jobs would have to give something up, right? >> i don't know what you mean. >> ifill: you're talking about dipping into their retirement savings in order to balance.... >> this is just cash money that the postal service needs access to. we're not looking to in any way diminish what needs to be done for future pensions or future retirees. it's just that you don't have to do 75 years worth of pre-funding in a ten-year period. you can rea.m. torize what needs to be done. >> ifill: what about eliminating saturday delivery. do you think that's necessary? >> i think it would be bad for the business. it's one of the things that gives the postal service a competitive edge. you would be giving up about 17% of your service for about 3% of a return. >> ifill: mr. donahoe, do you agree with mr. orlando that no lay-offs are necessary? >> no. the problem is this, gwen. in the last ten years, we've ha

he says that the postal service is on the brink of default.ear from now we will not be able to meet its payroll and carry out its operations. yet this morning or this afternoon, rather, you come to us and tell us that the administration does not yet have a plan. you have opposed several of the reforms, the fundamental reforms that the postmaster general has put forth as far as separate retirement system and changing to a defined contribution system. you have asked for, or you say you want more time to study it. you have asked for a 90-day delay in the 5.5 billion. you haven't mentioned your position on relief from the no layoff provisions that are in the union contracts. you really haven't come forth with a plan other than to take a position in opposition to the repayment of the $55 billion to the csrs system that our actuary here has described. i just don't understand why the administration doesn't have a concrete plan to put before us today, given the dire straits that we're in? senator carper and i have had bills out there for many months.

and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture here as states postal service is a big financial trouble it may be on the verge of shutting down so what happens when the mail stops being delivered and who exactly is to blame for the post offices financial troubles here's a hint his last name is bush has been all initial is and mitt romney unavailable his job creation plan today and it really doesn't differ of much from any other republican so what are republicans propose in the same ideas the center economy is would still spin and been proven to kill and not create jobs are they just insane or brought up. you need to know this the united states post office is on the verge of shutting down according to the new york times today post office is quickly running out of cash or may be forced to shut down this winter as the times writes sometime early next year the agency will run out of money to pay its employees and gas up its trucks force him to stop delivering the roughly three billion pieces of mail it handles weekly postmaster general patrick r. donahoe described the situation as e

be drawn back and returned to the postal service allowing the postal service to pay down their veryment schedule for the retiree benefits. very conservative approach. but here as i said before the three things the auto industry needed to do. there were three things the postal service needs to do and the question is are we going to let them? i'm not interested in laying off you or anyone else lead off the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of postal the employees but i think that you resist by about a quarter of the last six or seven years that's a lot of people and maybe 200,000 or so you have about another 100,000 folks that will probably leave through attrition and people retire and say that's enough i'm ready to go on with my life and about 120,000 or so who if incentivized would have encouraged to retire would actually encourage or retire and the question is are we going to make sure we have the resources and the cash to incentivize those people but run the numbers and think about this just run the numbers for what it cost to incentivize 120,000 people to retire we can l

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the other is to build a postal roads.t is the only department that i know of in the government that actually makes money. besides tax revenue. so, i do now know why we do not just three the postal department the way that we treat any other department in the government. instead of isolating it by saying that you have to live within your income, the rest of the military does not live within its income and it does not have any income. the commerce department does not have any income, but the postal department has income. why not treat that like the rest of it and distribute it throughout the rest of the area? up host:. romney has an op-ed talking about his plan to turn around the u.s. economy. just to give you the bullet points, first he says that president obama has threatened to raise taxes on individuals and businesses. he said he would push hard in the opposite direction. he said that he would pare back regulation, including obama- care, and regulatory increases being pushed down to zero. going to the next column -- host

postal service to the brink of insolvency. a number of things involved, clearly the internet age marked the slow death of the postal service. e-commerce, all sorts of transactions online. prices have not risen, they are not making more money. the postal service does not get anything more than what it owns through the services. and clearly, the recession has brought it to this really rather dire point. >> can the postal service actually compete? >> in order to compete, it has to take some extraordinarily drastic measure. we are presenting a plan to lay off 110,000 people and it wants to double that figure. a large chunk of that will be through redundancies. that has the unions up in arms. it is completely counter to the relationship with the union that has existed in the past. it means the closure of 3000 institutions. a lot of post offices will have to go. all sorts of measures that people will find hard to stomach. >> do people actually care? all i get in my mailbox is junk mail. >> this is going to be a big battle. probably

postal service in danger of defaulting. we will tell you what needs to happen to prevent a shutdown. >> change is coming to a san francisco institution. not everyone is happy. we will have that story coming up. >> we have some labor day tech online deals coming up. >> the lynn mccarthy was watching this pair rampaged through his or toyota pre as. he described happens. >> we cannot believe there was a bear inside of our car. it locked itself in. most of the damage was on the >> the bears took his paw and pushed the gear into neutral. the car started rolling. it slid down the driveway, across the street into another cabin and was wedged between rocks and the porch. it was 3:00 a.m., we have just woken up. what happened was to amazing. >> the bear must've been attracted to the aroma of food still lingering in the car. the food was already taken out of the vehicle once the family arrived at the cabin. the good news is no one was hurt. the pair was able to get away. >> a look at our extended forecast, warmer weather on tap for t

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the postal service has made a number of policy proposals allowing the postal service to restructure its health care system and make it independent of federal programs. we need to accelerate workforce reduction by as many as 220,000 employees. >> jon: oh, that's how, you're just going to lay off 220,000 postal workers. what would go wrong with that? [laughter] after all, the phrase "going postal" is virtually synonymous with reacting well to bad news. [laughter] it is no surprise that the post office is struggling, it's an insane business model. someone comes to your house, takes something you've written, and brings it to a person that you want them to give it to anywhere in the world for like 50 cents. oh, but it's going to take a couple of days. ites amazing. i'm surprised the post office has lasted this long. there was a company in new york called urban fetch.com, a door-to-door delivery service for your whims, like amazon meets domino, a service people too high to go out and get things but not too high to want things. so you would go online and you would order it. this is true. you w

postal service is in.amic because you certainly have a strong union, you have certain union contracts that are being upheld, and that's putting pressure, he says, on the postal service. the postal service doesn't get any federal money. what position are you in as chair of homeland security and government affairs to help the postal service? what do you think the government would be willing to do or not do to keep the u.s. postal service around? >> yeah. you made a really good -- i mean, the postal service has been here since the 18th century. it's an american iconic institution. there are more people working for the post office than any private employer in america but walmart, and the postal service has more locations than walmart, starbucks and mcdonald's combined. but it's come up against the internet, and it's losing business dramatically. the recession, of course, has hurt as well. it's going to run an over $8 billion deficit for the second year in a row. and though it's separate from the federal govern

postal service consider cuts to slash a few deficits.may affect a lot of people. >> and bay area transportation leaders are eyeing a new gas tax and you have >>> look at the temperatures across the country. everybody feeling the fall. there are some areas that were in the 90s a couple days that are now in the 60s. we have 50s around seattle and portland. good news if you are travel by air, all major airports running on time. any time this weekend if you are traveling go to abc7news.com and check out flight tracker. it's at the bottom. >>> snail mail could end up being slower. u.s. postal service wants to make sweeping changes including one that would end overnight delivery of first class mail. here is lilian kim with the story. >> u.s. postal service goes through 157 billion pieces of mail a year. in five years, mail volume has dropped 43 billion pieces. >> we're seeing less and less mail. we also are seeing idle equipment standing by with no mail to run through it with employees with less work to do. >> the recession, and postal service

the postal service is in trouble. only because it's running a $9 billion deficit but because the world has changed. the rise of fedex, ups and e-mail giving mr. mailman a run for his money and he's losing. the post office delivered 171 billion pieces of mail in 2010, that's a big number, but down 20% from 2006. but that's the least of its problems. the postal service is also required to deliver mail wherever it's sent no matter what. and by law, it is forced to pay for retiree health costs for the next 75 years. i tell you this because the postal service says it can't make the $5.5 billion payment for retiree health costs this month and is now in danger of defaulting. the postmaster general will be asking the senate for help today. maybe the answer to that plea is in our talk back question this morning. the question for you, is the postal service obsolete? facebook.com/americanmorning. i'll read your comments later this hour. >> in this country, congress is in charge of the purse strings for the postal service even th

postal office.nd the two leading candidates for the republican nomination, mitt romney and rick perry, both say they support a national right to work law. think about that. the two men who could very well be the next president of the united states want to effectively bring organized labor to an end. i believe it was karl rove not long ago who said that's really the last line of infrastructure that the democratic party has is organized labor in this country. so now the republicans are out there saying, hell, let's get right to work in every state. i think they'd go so far as to make it a federal law. let's not forget deregulation in the financial industry. tax breaks for big oil, oil will run wild with republicans in charge. that's the very minimum. there are republicans in office who scream about the most basic consumer protections. these are the same people who have no problem throwing this country into unfunded wars, the recklessness of the current crop of republicans is really nothing compared to

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postal service wants to eliminate 35,000 workers.n't sit well with some customers. >> this is a good job. if somebody lose this job, they might lose their housing and so many stuff going on behind this e-any change to mail delivery needs congressional approval. they hope lawmakers go along. >> we are fought going away. not cholesteroling down. not out of business. we are doing this so that we can stay in business. >>reporter: postal service has 5 74,000 career employeeings. nation second largest civilian employer after wal-mart. in the news ramp, 7 news. >>> thank you. secretary of state hillary clinton says she is optimistic about the reless of 2 uc berkeley graduate held in iran. at news conference in san francisco she said despite the delay she believes shane and josh will soon be relessed. >> i'm going to count on the iran an government fulfilling the announcement that was made by the the leadership of the country and hope that it can be expedited and we can see their release very soon. >>reporter: him if they are involved in neg

the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it.

postal service wants to eliminate 35,000 workers. that doesn't sit well with some customers. >> this is a good job. if somebody lose this job, they might lose their housing and so many stuff going on behind this e-any change to mail delivery needs congressional approval. they hope lawmakers go along. >> we are fought going away. not cholesteroling down. not out of business. we are doing this so that we can stay in business. >>reporter: postal service has 5 74,000 career employeeings. nation second largest civilian employer after wal-mart. in the news ramp, 7 news. >>> thank you. secretary of state hillary clinton says she is optimistic about the reless of 2 uc berkeley graduate held in iran. at news conference in san francisco she said despite the delay she believes shane and josh will soon be relessed. >> i'm going to count on the iran an government fulfilling the announcement that was made by the the leadership of the country and hope that it can be expedited and we can see their release very soon. >>reporter: him if they are invol

we have about 160,000 veterans in the postal service. when you close a post office or a plant, everyone is gone. the veterans may be the last to go but they go, too. >> you told me something that surprised me because we hear about postal budget problems all the time. the postal service is bringing in $65 billion a year. that's a shocking figure. >> it is an astounding amount of money when you consider what 44 cents apiece or down to 20 something cents apiece. there is a lot of revenue. there are a lot of people who would like to break up the post office and take the profitable parts. i say profitable just for one reason. the post office itself cannot run a profit. it has to be run on revenue -- revenue neutral. but a company who can come in and say strip out the big city where they could make money and make a lot of noun pay the workers less, that would be their solution. in a lot of cases but then who would deliver in the nonprofit? that's where the taxpayers come in. if they do what they're trying to do, it would break the post office

ups, fed ex have all eroded the postal service. unions are supporting a bill that calls for using pension money instead of lay offs to meet financial obligation. >> hr1351 is a fresh step in returning the postal service to financial footing. >> reporter: the majority of citizens we talked to tonight say while cuts may have to be made, the postoffice cannot go under. >> just to send my bills, you know. i don't like to pay online, i don't like to put all my information online. can't hack the postoffice. >> i would hate to lose saturday delivery, but if that's what they have to do to save it, i think they should do it. >> reporter: if congress doesn't act the postal service will default and may have to shut down entirely. lloyd lacuesta, ktvu channel 2 news. >>> federal authorities unsealed an indictment today accusing members of the hell's angels of mortgage fraud. two hell's angels leaders obtained more than $10 million worth of loans. the money was allegedly used to buy homes across the bay area for marijuana growing operations. >>

. >> gregg: the postal service is in trouble financially. in losses facing default. some people saying, it is time to just end the deliveries. the future of mail, coming up, next. [ male announcer ] succeeding in today's market requires more than wishful thinking. it requires determination and decisive action. i go to e-trade and get unbiased analyst ratings and 24/7 help from award-winning customer support to take control of my finances and my life. i tap into the power of revolutionary mobile apps. to trade wherever. whenever. life isn't fully experienced sitting idly by. neither is investing. [ birds chirping ] there's another way litter box dust:e purina tidy cats. tidy cats premium line of litters now works harder on dust. and our improved formulas neutralize odors better than ever in multiple-cat homes. so it's easier to keep your house smelling just the way you want it. purina tidy cats. keep your home smelling like home. diabetes testing? what else is new? you get the blood, hope it's enough, it's-- what's this? freestyle lite® blood

patrick donahoe told congress that the postal service is running out of money to pay its bills.e's not looking for a handout, he wants something else. nancy cordes is our congressional correspondent. nancy, how did the post office get in so much trouble? >> reporter: well, scott, first and foremost it's because demand for the bread and butter product for the u.s. postal service, first class letter mail, has dropped by a whopping 36% over the past five years. now, partly that's because of the bad economy, but mostly it's because americans are plain and simple switching to e-mail, they're paying their billings online and sending invitations on line. >> pelley: what's the postmaster general asking for? >> reporter: well, in the immediate term he wants congress to postpone a payment that's coming due at the end of the month for the postal service for $5.5 billion. but in the long term, he wants authorization for a host of things: approval to drop saturday delivery, to slash work force by 120,000 workers and to close about 3,700 postal offices around the country. >> pelley: one of th