Post Office Discovers Rule 5

Or at least a version of it.  The Santa Fe, NM Post office has published a calender of "good looking"  mail deliverers, as a fund raising vehicle for muscular dystrophy, and to help fight legislation threatening cuts in Post Office jobs and service:

The committee is battling a bill in congress that would cut service and jobs at USPS in an attempt to pull them out of the red, but Karmela Gonzales, the calendar's creator, says that's not the problem. "We're paying for retirement and pension benefits for people who haven't even been hired by the postal service," she said. A federal mandate forced USPS to pre-fund the health care benefits of future retirees. According to online sources it's legislation that costs the Postal Service more than $5.5 billion per year.  Gonzales hopes pin-ups of artists, body builders and motorcycle moms, all of them mail carriers, will help draw attention to their cause and fund endeavors to reform the legislation.

I imagine that this amounts to the post office having to set aside money now for pension payments in the future, like most private pensions must and, unlike most government agencies which plan on funding pensions out of future tax income.  Having to fund pensions as the costs are incurred is very inhibiting.

Thanks to Maggie at Maggie's Notebook who picked up this link in her Rule 5 post on some beautiful Russian chick that I had never heard of before.