Paul Ryan's wife, Janna Little Ryan, is not exactly the typical stay at home Mom that is portrayed by Mr Ryan . Until their marriage she was a successful tax attorney and by the time she was 30 a high-priced lobbyist. Mrs. Ryan worked for Big Pharmaceuticals, Big Oil, and health care corporations. Interestingly she was also a key lobbyist for UPS. Her lobbying team was paid $220,000 in 1998 to lobby against the interests of the US Postal Service.
" (Janna) Ryan was a part of the lobbying effort that defeated a postal reform bill which was designed to make the U.S. Postal Service more profitable. The ripples of her work in defeating this bill were felt earlier this month, when the Postal Service defaulted on payments to the U.S. Treasury." (1)
UPS spent over
$5 million lobbying against its main competitor. Janna Little Ryan lobbied congress to not allow the Postal Service to expand the services it offers. UPS at this time initiated a smear campaign against the Postal Service by among other things sending every member of congress a box filled with anti Postal Service editorials.
Congressman Ryan has not officially announced his views regarding Postal Reform. Considering he wants to privatize Medicare and Social Security it's not difficult to figure out his intentions. On his website the segment that discusses the Postal Service proudly outlines Congressman Issa's draconian HR 2309 bill. Which would dismantle the Postal Service.
He also makes note of the name of the new "authority" Issa would use to dissolve the current postal union collective bargaining agreements. Postal Service Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority incredulously is its name.
This authority would "have a broad mandate to restructure the Postal Service and reduce costs in order to bring the institution back to fiscal solvency" Once it closes enough Post Offices and shreds the collective bargaining agreements he notes the board will be "disbanded." Ryan instead should have stated that once the Board is finished so is the Postal Service.
Considering Ryan's privatization zeal and his wife's UPS lobbyist connection it's clear he will not act in a way that's in the best interest of the Postal Service. The GOP Platform calls for a partial privatization. That would be the first step toward selling the Postal Service off. The combination of Congressman Ryan and Governor Romney looks to be a fatal combination for the US Postal Service.
Originally posted at the NH Labor News
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