Over the next three days, Reuters is holding a series of interviews with key government officials, legislators, and interest group representatives in order to develop exclusive reports for Reuters’ paying clients with a focus on economic policy issues. Looking at the list reminded me of a song from Sesame Street.
“One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn’t belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others?
By the time I finish my song?”
Take a look at the list of interviewees and see if you can pick out the one name that is not like the others.
Speakers at the Reuters Washington Summit
- Robert Hormats, State Department Undersecretary for Economic Affairs
- Bruce Josten, U.S. Chamber of Commerce VP of Government Affairs
- Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform President
- John Cornyn, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman
- Steve Israel, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman
- Sheila Smith, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Economist
- Jack Lew, White House Office of Management and Budget Director
- Patrick Donahoe, U.S. Postal Service Postmaster General
- John McCain, U.S. Senate Top Republican on House Armed Services
Committee - Lamar Alexander, Senate Republican Conference Committee Chairman
- Tom Coburn, U.S. Senate Active in August debt ceiling talks
- Thea Lee, AFL-CIO Deputy Chief of Staff
- Steven Hess, Moody’s VP and Senior Credit Officer
Did you pick out Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe like I did? Every other individual is clearly involved with the political or economic issues relating to the economic growth, or the budget deficit. The non-postal focus is reinforced in the graphics that Reuters provides as a background on the topics that will be discussed. So why would the Postmaster General be included in a series of interviews relating to economic and budget policy?
The Postmaster General makes sense for two reasons.
First the Postal sector is over 7% of the national economy. U.S. competitiveness requires a vibrant postal system, just like it needs vibrant telecommunications and freight transportation systems. Having, possibly, the only Post Office in the G-20 not operating under standard corporate law creates significant risk: the United States will have a second-class postal sector compared to our global competitors. No legislative proposal introduced in the current Congress has the imagination to put United States postal policy on an equal footing with the policies of our G-20 competitors.
Second, the future of the Postal Sector looks dire due to the nature of the legislative process. Legislation developed in the House and Senate maintain the current highly-regulated, quasi-government business model while focusing on service cuts as the way to solve the Postal Service’s financial problems. Passage of any legislation by the House or Senate will be difficult as the service cuts have tangible impact in local communities, as well as vocal Republican and Democratic opponents. Even if each house of Congress can pass a postal reform bill, resolving the differences between the ISSA/Ross bill in the House and the Lieberman/Collins/Carper/Brown bill in the Senate will be as difficult as passage of any legislation Congress has had this session.
The stories based on these interviews will be out in the next few days. To get these stories follow Reuters_Summits on Twitter.
