"Congress manufactured the current financial crisis with an accounting sleight-of-hand. USPS would be in the black if not for an extreme 2006 law that requires the agency to pre-fund retiree health benefits 75 years in advance, before some of these future retirees are even born. This means it owes a $5.5 billion payment to the Treasury every summer. This year it had to default.
The resulting USPS budget deficit has created an opportunity for privatization advocates to hack away."
