[triceratops]

Interesting. It's clearly complicated. The tl;dr appears to be that Congress loves meddling in USPS affairs but requires it to pay its own way, and uses it as a political punching bag when it falls short. From the article you posted:

"While state government workers and teachers have their pension and retiree health funds invested in a mix of stocks, bonds, and other quality assets, USPS, by law, can invest only in government bonds. USPS had $298 billion in such assets at the end of fiscal year 2022. Its inspector general estimated it could have had up to $1.2 trillion if it had diversified its investments as states do for government workers."

So USPS is $900b short because of laws Congress passed, and now needs $100b in taxpayer assistance.

[from-nibly]

Yeah that "if" is carrying a whooooole lota weight there. I could have been a billionaire if I invested more money in bitcoin back in 2008 too.

[triceratops]

Except it isn't Bitcoin it's index funds. If you already have it out for the USPS and believe it's useless then you won't care. But any reasonable person can see it's a meaningful difference.

[reverius42]

Ok, and if you had wanted to at the time, and Congress specifically prevented you from doing so, wouldn't you feel you deserve some compensation from Congress now?