[ceejayoz]

The GAO's report on the law (https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-13-112.pdf) has details.

> Rather, pursuant to OPM’s methodology, such payments would be projected to fund the liability over a period in excess of 50 years, from 2007 through 2056 and beyond (with rolling 15-year amortization periods after 2041). However, the payments required by PAEA were significantly “frontloaded,” with the fixed payment amounts in the first 10 years exceeding what actuarially determined amounts would have been using a 50-year amortization schedule.

> We also reviewed the prefunding requirements for other organizations that offer retiree health benefits to their employees: private sector entities, state and local governments, and other federal entities. Although other federal, state and local, and private sector entities generally are not required to prefund retiree health care benefits, a few do prefund at limited percentages of their total liability.

> For example, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) reported that 126 of the 296 companies in the S&P 500 that offered “other post-employment benefits” (OPEB)64 prefunded some percentage of the associated liabilities, while the USPS OIG has reported that 38 percent of Fortune 1000 companies that offer retiree health care benefits prefund them, at a median funding level of 37 percent.

[lotsofpulp]

Seems I was wrong about funding for retiree healthcare benefits. But I wonder if there is no funding rules for it because they are not a legally protected benefit like DB pensions.

I would agree that politicians did try to handicap USPS probably to benefit UPS/FedEx. I would also say every entity, government or non government, should be required to fund future promises today, otherwise it should be listed as debt on the balance sheet.

Deferred compensation is used too easily to shift costs from today into the future and keep those costs off the books, either by not accounting for them at all or undervaluing them.