With respect to employee retirements they actually refer to ".......to pay benefits that won't be covered by future taxes....."
My retirement has been paid for in agency matching funds deposited with OPM (in US treasury bonds) which were paid by USERS OF THE MAILS, not TAXPAYERS. The actuaries say it works out.
What you do when you don't back USPS out of the action is you are dealing with the high priced spread in the US government. Your average postal employee simply doesn't earn the high incomes found commonly in, for example, Justice Department!
There are some exceptional postal workers ~ in management and technical positions ~ who earn essentially the same as their counterparts in other agencies, but their retirements are also paid out of user fees (postage) by private sector mailers in a process separate and distinct from TAXES.
That's why postal retirement funds can constitute a body of credit Geithner can use to avoid borrowing elsewhere. That's the subsidization of the federal government by USPS that's presently taking place.
I only see 5 occurrences of the word “tax” with 3 of those occurrences part of “taxpayers”. The article does not promote any particular solution to the budget problem.
The USPS has $80+ billion in unfunded pension liabilities. The unfunded liabilities are not covered by postal fees. The USPS has claim that it is not part of the government in an attempt to claim that these liabilities are part of general taxpayer obligations. The USPS is part of the government as Congress exerts considerable influence on its budgets and operations.
USPS employees are well compensated with almost iron clad job security (at least until now). The positions have the same bloated pay grades as other federal employees. The USPS has never ending battles between management and the labor cartels. As with any other labor cartel dominated organization, I am sure that the USPS has lots of lazy bums along with mind numbing and efficiency crashing work rules. I am sure there are talented and hard working individuals also.
Congress has given the USPS a politically charged mission with idiotic requirements for uniform postal rates and policital pressures to keep post offices open. Congress has also provided the USPS a monopoly on first class mail to offset the onerous constraints.
The Geittner manuevering involves phony government accounting. The USPS does not have any pension fund that I can find. Please give me a link to the CAFR for the USPS pension fund so I can see its investments. The federal government of which USPS is part of, has $80 billion of unfunded liabilities for postal workers. There are no assets to pay these benefits. The federal government has taxing ability and the USPS can raise postal rates.