Hidden Tax?

I just heard something that is a little irritating so I’m going to complain for a few minutes here. Someone told me that a friend of their mother’s cousin’s brother told them that the recent .02 cent increase in postal rates has nothing to do with rising operational costs. I googled this and found some interesting things that I was not aware of (guess I need to be more aware of just how unaware I really am!). In a nutshell:

1. The Postal Service ended F2005 with a $1.4 billion surplus AND debt free (compared to the $11 billion debt a few years ago)
2. The millions of dollars raised through this increase goes to the U.S. Treasury because
3. Congress passed a law in 2003 requiring the Postal Service to create a $3 billion escrow account and the use of these funds to be determined later by Congress (without this new law rates would not have increased last month)
4. The Postal Service is now responsible for paying military pensions for former armed services personnel who either work for or are retired from the Postal Service
5. If the current system does not change then we can expect more rate increases in shorter periods to fund the escrow account and military benefits

And I thought it was just another cost of living increase or because of income shortfalls of the Postal Service due to the plethora of alternative means of mailing something.