Urgent message to from NALC eActivist network:
Dear Supporter,
Urgent action: Call your member of the House of Representatives at 202-224-3121 immediately. Tell him or her to vote NO today on the Republican budget bill, H.R. 6684. This bill cuts federal/postal pay by 5 percent over the next five years by raising your contributions for FERS and CSRS pension benefits, just to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy.
House Speaker John Boehner and the GOP leadership in the House have walked away from deficit reduction talks with President Obama, and they are attempting to jam a radically right-wing budget proposal through the House today. The vote will happen this afternoon or early evening.
To protect wealthy taxpayers earning between $250,000 and $1 million annually, and to spare the defense contractors who fund so many of their campaigns, the GOP leadership introduced the so-called “Plan B” package of spending and tax bills rather than negotiate in good faith with President Obama to avert a self-inflicted austerity crisis in January, when tax increases and budget cuts on defense and other discretionary spending are set to take effect.
One of the provisions in the bill would raise your pension contributions by 1.5 percent in 2013, 0.5 percent in 2014 and 1 percent annually from 2015 to 2017, even though the Postal Service’s pension accounts are over-funded. This outrageous attack is intended to reduce the budget deficit, but the Plan B approach spares the wealthy from paying their fair share and largely exempts the huge defense budget from cuts. This is the kind of radical budget voters rejected in November when they re-elected President Obama and endorsed his balanced plan for deficit reduction, which asks the wealthy to pay the tax rates that they paid during the 1990s when the economy boomed.
Call your member of the House of Representatives immediately, and urge your fellow carriers and friends to do the same. Tell your representative to vote no on the GOP’s budget cuts in H.R. 6684.
In Solidarity,
Fredric V. Rolando, President
National Association of Letter Carriers