(WMR) -- According to US Postal Service insiders, the Bush
administration, which has prided itself on tax cuts, has imposed a stealth war
tax on the American people.
In January, the Postal Rate Commission approved a two-cent
raise in first class postage to 39 cents. The commission has now indicated it
wants to raise the price of a first class stamp by three cents to 42 cents next
year.
The reason for the Bush stamp tax is that when the Bush
administration took power in 2001, the Postal Service Fund, a special account
established within the Treasury Department, had a substantial surplus. However,
in order to pay for its Iraq war adventure, the Bush administration raided the
Postal Service Fund and created a deficit. The two successive rate increases
have been necessary in order to replenish the fund, according to Postal Service
sources.
In addition to the Postal Service Fund, the misappropriation
of money for the war has also adversely affected the Postal Employees'
Compensation Fund, the solvency for which is guaranteed by the Postal Service
Fund.
The Postal Rate Commission is a gaggle of GOP hacks. The
two-term chairman is Mississippian George Omas, a former House of
Representatives employee and a member of the National Republican Club of
Capitol Hill. The vice chairman is Dawn Tisdale, a former postmaster of
Smithville, Texas. Another commissioner is Tony Hammond, the 1998 director of
campaign operations for the Republican National Committee and an assistant to
then RNC chair Haley Barbour. Danny Covington, a one-time GOP House candidate
whose term expired in October 2005, and Omas are both Ole Miss graduates and
represent a GOP clique beholden to Barbour and Senator Trent Lott.
© 2006
WayneMadsenReport.com. All Rights Reserved.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based
investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is author of the forthcoming book, “Jaded
Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops & Brass Plates.” He is the editor and
publisher of the Wayne Madsen
Report.
