Special Reports
George W. Bush's War Stamp Tax
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer


May 9, 2006, 01:29

(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.

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