No, this time “unmitigated disaster” isn’t being used to describe ObamaCare — although that description of ObamaCare is accurate. This time, the phrase is part of the latest installment in the saga of the U.S. Postal Service, which is unable to provide its service without hemorrhaging money. Now the USPS has been given permission for a temporary rate hike. A first class stamp will jump to 49 cents at the end of January.

In voting 2-1 in favor of the temporary hikes, the Postal Regulatory Commission ruled that the Postal Service had made a case to recoup $2.8 billion worth of mail volume lost between 2008 and 20011 because of the “Great Recession,” but judged that the increases should last “just long enough to recover the loss,” Ruth Goldway, the commission’s chairman, said in a news release.

Reaction was swift.

The temporary nature of the boosts was no consolation to a coalition of mailing industry groups, which labeled the decision “an unmitigated disaster.”

“The fact that this is a ‘surcharge’ does nothing to help our industry, which will have to start paying next month,” Jim Cregan, a magazine trade group representative speaking on behalf of the coalition, said in a statement. “We are reviewing our next steps.”

We’re still waiting for Congress to unleash market forces on daily mail delivery. Competition from private firms would lower the cost and increase service. But here we sit with an antiquated government-controlled service — and you see the results.