April 10th will be a monumental day in the history of the United States… the post office is set to lower the price of a first class stamp by two cents. It’s got to be a first for the postal service.
The drop in price has nothing to do with any improvement to the fiscal health of the postal service, it apparently stems from a price increase years ago that was tied to a clause that as soon as the post office recouped lost revenue due to the last recession that the increase would roll back.
It comes as no surprise to me that the federal government has gauged the fiscal success of the postal service by a 20% drop in the amount of the yearly losses, which are still in the 4 to 5 billion dollar range.
Same logic has been applied to the Federal Budget for years now… To hell with how much we’re going in the hole each year as long as we can pretend that small cuts in the overall deficient are going to eventually get you to a balance budget. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all could live like that way? Unfortunately in the real world you eventually run out of people to borrow from and those who are holding your notes have a tendency to want to get paid.