I received a copy of one of my specialty magazines today, MAIL.

There are two headlines on the cover:

USPS To Discount First-Class Mail 20% To Boost Volumes

and

Post Will Default on Retiree Payment to U.S.Treasury

About the first – I doubt that the bulk use of First-class mail is all that sensitive to price-discounting. The program will only be available to mailers who mailed 500,000 or more pieces in the fourth quarter of each of the past two years. Not going to affect me (or Greenleaf Press), I can assure you.

The 2nd headline is more disturbing. Postal Service retirees have their healthcare covered by the US Government. The Postal Service is obligated to fund the cost of its retiree’s healthcare. Their obligation for September 30, 2009 is to pay $5.4 billion to the US Treasury in order to pay those healthcare expenses. They don’t have the cash. Guess who will wind up paying the expenses? The taxpayers of the United States.

Why does anyone believe that a federal government can figure out how to run the entire healthcare sector of the economy? They can’t figure out how to pay for the healthcare of retired postal workers?