Ok, Congress is back to work, well, kind of. They have been in session, but they haven’t done anything. So, does it really matter that they’re in session? Not missing an opportunity to start the year off on the wrong foot, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wants the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to “pre-prepare” tax returns for low-income folks. What could possibly go wrong? According to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), “Long-term, we should be looking at a solution where everyday people do not necessarily have to spend hours every year preparing tax returns, when the majority of Americans have relatively simple and straight-forward returns.” I agree…kind of. How about we continue to simplify the system rather than expand the powers of the IRS?
Return to Sender…at Taxpayer Expense
If you received a gift from me and want to return it, I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that I won’t take it personally. The bad news is that we don’t know how much it will cost to ship it back if you return it through the United States Postal Service (USPS) because consumers are left in the dark about how much leading e-commerce companies compensate the USPS, and if revenues are meeting costs. The actual formulas that lead the USPS to determine which shipping prices are reasonable to charge companies are a closely guarded secret. Agency watchers trying to figure out how the agency goes about charging e-commerce companies will be greeted with a thick, unrelenting drab of black sharpie’d (redacted) Inspector General (IG) reports resembling the Mueller Report. But there are plenty of hints that something is seriously wrong with the way that the USPS calculates its prices. In its recently-released fiscal year 2019 Annual Compliance Report, the USPS notes that revenue from mail items such as packages covers 23.4 percent of the agency’s “total institutional costs.” This may seem like a lot, until you realize that packages account for about half the weight that the USPS carts around.
The agency manages to charge e-commerce giants insanely low prices where revenues aren’t even covering a quarter of, say, new truck purchases. This revenue voodoo hasn’t deterred the USPS. A 2019 IG report notes that the agency has “eliminated a number of fees for returns aimed at commercial shippers” in its quest to compete with the likes of FedEx and UPS. But the agency is struggling to get its returns business up to par with the rest of its delivery services, and returns volume and revenue, “have been growing rapidly, though not nearly as fast as outbound package volume and revenue.” It’s tempting for the agency to try to keep pace with private shippers for returns business even though the agency lost nearly $9 billion just in FY 2019. But before the agency tries to lure in e-commerce companies with 60 percent discounts, it must be sure that its pricing formulas are in lockstep with reality. Opening up its books to independent analysts would be a great first step and signal the USPS’s resolve to get its house in order. And, unless the agency stems the flood of red ink, taxpayers and stamp buyers will almost certainly foot the bailout bill.
California is Ruining an Opportunity to Save Lives
As millions of smokers across California (and the United States) readied their New Year’s resolutions on December 31 to kick their deadly habit for good, bureaucrats at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a ban on flavored, disposable vaping pods (other than mint and tobacco). This will make it more difficult for smokers to quit cigarettes and embrace e-cigarettes, which are 95 percent safer than combustible tobacco products according to leading medical bodies. And now, California lawmakers are furiously trying to outdo the FDA, courting restrictions on vaping products that would make federal agency officials blush.
Elected officials across California could save millions of lives by ditching misguided proposed restrictions and granting smokers access to life-saving products. But Senate Bill 793, introduced by state Senator Jerry Hill (D-Mateo), would ban all flavored e-cigarettes, regardless of the flavor (i.e. menthol) and whether said flavor comes from a disposable pod. As a result, adult smokers trying to find virtually any flavored alternative to cigarettes must either continue their deadly tobacco addiction or buy illegal, bootleg e-cigarettes linked to the hospitalization of hundreds of Californians. Lawmakers believe they are doing society a huge service by banning vaping varieties such as mango and watermelon since, allegedly, these flavors are a gateway to millions of middle-and-high schoolers taking up vaping. Except, there’s zero evidence for these outrageous claims – and plenty of evidence for the harms this ban will cause.
According to research by the steadfastly anti-vaping Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 96 percent of teenagers simply aren’t interested in trying e-cigarettes, flavor or no flavor. This may come as a surprise to overzealous lawmakers and regulators, but flavors benefit adults more than kids. Data from the federal government shows that, in order of preference, adult smokers prefer fruit, mint/menthol, and chocolate/miscellaneous flavors. It’s no surprise that, in response to a 2016 Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives Association survey, 72 percent of vapers (of all ages) “credited tasty flavors with helping them give up tobacco.” And this is working: nearly 1 million adult vapers across California are successfully quitting cigarettes in large part because the alternative is far tastier. The number of smokers in California has plummeted in recent years as a result of the introduction of vaping products. As of 2017, only 11.4 percent of California adults, and 4.3 percent of high school students, currently smoke traditional combustible cigarettes. And preliminary numbers from the FDA show the number of teens smoking nationally has fallen by a staggering 20 percent on top of this over the past two years. This is the sharpest decrease in history.
Policymakers often justify their worst proposals by appealing to fear and bringing youth to the forefront of their crusades, but in doing so they are not only acting against all scientific evidence, they are putting millions of lives in danger in a ban that will lead to more people taking up – and dying from – smoking combustible cigarettes. California lawmakers must put scare tactics and fearmongering aside and acknowledge the 3 million smokers across the state that are desperately trying to find safe products that can help wean them off tobacco. Responding to their cries by banning harm-reduction products would not only ruin millions of New Year’s resolutions but cut countless lives short.
Blogs:
Media:
January 2, 2020: ConservativeHQ mentioned TPA in their article, “Conservatives Kill Tesla’s Federal Subsidy, But Democrat States Continue Elon’s Gravy Train.”
January 2, 2020: WBFF (Fox, Baltimore) interviewed me about New Year’s resolutions for Congress.
January 3, 2020: Catalyst ran TPA’s op-ed, “From the Russia Investigation to FBI Mass Surveillance, Government Snooping is Out of Control.”
January 3, 2020: I appeared on the “Conservative Commandos” radio show to talk about harm reduction (vaping) and electric vehicle subsidies.
January 6, 2020: The American Conservative ran TPA’s op-ed, “The Postal Service Rings In The New Year By Bleeding Cash.”
January 7, 2020: Catalyst ran TPA’s op-ed, “Thanks to Crony Capitalism, Healthcare Competition Is Flatlining for Consumers.”
January 8, 2020: The Orange County Register (Orange County, Calif.) ran TPA’s op-ed, “To save lives, California must end war on vaping.”
January 8, 2020: The San Bernardino Sun (San Bernardino, CA) ran TPA’s op-ed, “To save lives, California must end war on vaping.”
January 8, 2020: The Daily Bulletin (Rancho Cucamonga, CA) ran TPA’s op-ed, “To save lives, California must end war on vaping.”
January 8, 2020: The Redlands Daily Facts (Redlands, CA) ran TPA’s op-ed, “To save lives, California must end war on vaping.”
January 8, 2020: The Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA) ran TPA’s op-ed, “To save lives, California must end war on vaping.”
January 8, 2020: The Press-Telegram (Long Beach, CA) ran TPA’s op-ed, “To save lives, California must end war on vaping.”
January 8, 2020: The San Gabriel Valley Tribune (San Gabriel, CA) ran TPA’s op-ed, “To save lives, California must end war on vaping.”
January 8, 2020: The Los Angeles Daily News (Woodland Hills, CA) ran TPA’s op-ed, “To save lives, California must end war on vaping.”
January 8, 2020: The Whittier Daily News (Whittier, CA) ran TPA’s op-ed, “To save lives, California must end war on vaping.”
January 8, 2020: TPA Policy Director Ross Marchand appeared on “The Gary Nolan Show” (KSSZ 93.9 FM and KWOS 950 AM; MO) to discuss Postal Reform.
January 8, 2020: TPA Policy Director Ross Marchand appeared on “The KCOL Morning Show” (KCOL 600 AM; Denver, CO) to discuss Postal Reform.
January 8, 2020: TPA Policy Director Ross Marchand appeared on “The Hard Question” (WCGO 1590 AM; Chicago, IL) to discuss Postal Reform.
January 8, 2020: TPA Policy Director Ross Marchand appeared on “The Lars Larson Show” (nationally syndicated) to discuss Postal Reform.
January 9, 2020: TPA Policy Director Ross Marchand appeared on “What’s Up” (KKHT 100.7 FM; Houston, TX) to discuss Postal reform.
January 9, 2020: TPA Policy Director Ross Marchand appeared on “Free Fire” (KCNR 96.5 FM and 1460 AM; Redding, CA) to discuss Postal reform.
January 9, 2020: WBFF (Fox, Baltimore) interviewed me about the bloated spending bill and earmarks.
January 9, 2020: Cox-TV interviewed me about the new report by the IRS’s Taxpayer Advocate.
January 9, 2020: TPA Executive Director Tim Andrews appeared on KGED 1680 AM (Fresno, CA) to discuss California’s proposed ban on flavored e-cigarettes.
January 10, 2020: The Center Square ran TPA’s op-ed, “Trump can save millions of lives by rethinking vaping regs.”
Have a great weekend, and as always, thanks for your continued support.
Best,
David Williams
President
Taxpayers Protection Alliance
1401 K Street, NW
Suite 502
Washington, D.C. xxxxxx
www.protectingtaxpayers.org
