When the Founding Fathers wrote the words "We The People" into the constitution they wanted all citizens to benefit from a more perfect union and a promotion of the general welfare among other things. One such issue was helping to secure a free and vibrant press in America.
Well we now know that the Bush Administration and all of it's underlings are on a mission to destroy all the liberties we hold dear. By controlling the Postal Service, Republican appointees are going after small periodicals by dramatically raising their postage costs. Some people in the Congress are not too happy about that, but like with any other Congressional investigation, we get a lot of angry sounding speeches from legislators and in return they get "who me?" answers. Here's part of an exchange between Rep. Elijah Cummins (D-MD) and James Miller, the Chairman of USPS' board of Governors.
From Mother Jones:
"If these small publications go out of business, is that a win-win?" Cummings asked James Miller, chairman of the USPS's Board of Governors, the entity that approved the rate hikes, during one tense exchange.
"That's a hypothetical," Miller protested.
"Nah, nah, nah," Cummings said. "You got a lot of businesses that put out publications that are saying that this is going to affect them in a negative way.... I'm asking you a simple question. If they go out of business, is it a win-win?"
"I would say if they cannot cover their costs, it is a win-win situation," said Miller. "Let me tell you why I think that. Because other classes of mail would be covering their costs." He went on to explain that every American letter writer pays 200 percent of the cost of shipping his or her letter because small magazines and periodicals don't pay their fair share.
"So your answer is, it's a win-win for everybody but the people who go out of business," Cummings retorted.
"Yes, yes," Miller said, adding, "It's not that I'm heartless. It's not that we're heartless. We have to cover all sides. And I think the fairest thing is for every class of mail to cover the cost directly attributable to carrying their mail."
This is a Bushie going with the business model. If "x" is bad for business, then get rid of "x". Well sometimes "x" is a critical tool of democracy, both nationally and locally. The problem with their business model is that Bush's tools (like Miller) are so steadfastly wedded to their ideology that they forget where America's roots are. As Mother Jones points out in the article, George Washington wanted no postage fees for small periodicals. Instead their biggest costs are from the post office, not the payroll.
If these changes go into affect, many magazines such as "The Nation" and "The National Review" and many other smaller publications would have their doors shuttered by the Post Office's rate change. As long as people like James Miller around, expect American democracy to be on the decline as the neo-cons bow down to their gods made of money and bottom lines.
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