Duh!

I recently had occasion to conduct a transaction with the Federal Communications Commission. I filed my information online. A couple of days later, I received an envelope in the mail. It was a document from the FCC thanking me for filing my report online. It also included a paper copy of the report I had filed with additional pages advising me of the federal paperwork reduction act. In keeping with the paper work reduction, I was asked to review the information I had already submitted via internet and return the signed paper copy to them. Looks like this paperwork reduction thing is really working!

Then I read a small item in the newspaper about James Howarth. He received one of those dreaded letters from the IRS. It seems the IRS spent 42 cents to bill him for the 5 cents he owed them. He must pay, they said, or face additional penalties and interest. Ah, but the IRS had made a mistake. James received a second letter saying that the government actually owed him 4 cents. If James wants his 4 cents, he must request it. So our government spent 84 cents to tell a man if he wants the 4 cents he's entitled to, he'll have to spend 42 cents to get it. If he does, the government will have to spend another 42 cents to mail it to him. Multiply this by thousands of unreported instances, and we wonder why we have a deficit!

http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/laws/paperwork-reduction/3501.html

"Detroit man tries to make cents of the IRS." The Dallas Morning News; January 4, 2009; p. 9A.