Senate leader: Seniors "love to get" junk mail


Politicians are fond of invoking the elderly on behalf of a favored cause, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., took that gambit to a new level yesterday when discussing S. 1789, a bill intended to keep the U.S. Postal Service afloat. Who knew that the only thing connecting Gramps to the rest of us were auto insurance come-ons and grocery store fliers? Here, straight from a transcript in the Congressional Record, is Reid’s take on one reason for saving the Postal Service.

For seniors who cannot leave their

homes, mail carriers deliver lifesaving

medications—an important link to the

outside world. Elderly Americans rely

on the U.S. Postal Service.

I will go home tonight to my home

here in Washington, and there will be

some mail there. A lot of it is what

some people refer to as junk mail, but

for the people who are sending that

mail, it is very important.

And talking about seniors, seniors

love to get junk mail. It is sometimes

their only way of communicating or

feeling they are part of the real world.

Elderly Americans, more than any

other group of people in America, rely

on the U.S. Postal Service.”

Reid, by the way, is 71. FedLine’s not sure what to make of that.


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  1. Senator Reid can have all my junk mail. It will still be worth more than my opinion of him, so he can feel I’m “communicating” with him.

  2. Senator Reid is right. Not only does “Advertising Mail”, which supports one million jobs, connect the elderly with the world and is sometimes the only mail they get, the carrier is able to check on their well being. Every day a carrier somewhere does extraordinary things that saves someone from further injury and even worse. Just last month a carrier, after hearing moans, found an elderly patron that had fallen and cracked a hip. He got help and the patron is recovering. And this happend on a Saturday. What might have happened to the patron had the carrier not been delivering mail that Saturday.

  3. Fedline ought to be a little more objective and impartial in their reporting. Seniors are the most vunerable group to isolation and feeling disconnected from our society. The window clerk, the letter carrier and the mail all play a significant role in keeping America connected especially with the elderly. The postal service provides a service to every business, person and community in America without exception at an affordable rate for all. Not many, if any, can make that claim today.

  4. I agree that the post office is very important to not only seniors, but all Americans. I hope Congress can aid the USPS in becoming solvent again and bring in managers that have the business savvy to run a deprtment this size. I don’t know about the “seniors love to get junk mail” comment. Seems like a generalization and not a flattering one at that. Bottom line: Most politicians are cunning, not intelligent. Wouldn’t mind watching a reality TV show with the bozo’s in congress as the stars. Show some of the dumb things they say and ask them to explain it. The audience could vote to see if they think they are lying.

  5. twinkster@west market on

    Why don’t they know that letter carriers do so much more than just deliver junk mail? Do they not know that in some cases the carrier is the only contact they (seniors) have all day. Can you imagine what it’s like to be isolated to the point that you are actually waiting for your carrier, for just a brief moment of human connection. What if it were you parent, Mr. Donahoe, or yours Mr. Issa. you probably still would’nt give a damn right money talks? And also I thought it was a constitutional right for them to receive there mail the same as every body else? You guys should really be ashamed first and then fired next.

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