Federal Paperwork Costs as Much as the Deficit

Can the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives agree on anything? Here is a candidate: reduce paperwork mandates from the U.S. government. As Bloomberg Opinion columnist Cass Sunstein writes, the harmful effects of paperwork burdens are greatly understated. To get permits, licenses, tax deductions, jobs, educational assistance, subsidies, health benefits and job training, you have to fill out maddening federal forms. Before you laugh, please consider a number: 9.78 billion. That is the number of annual hours of paperwork burdens that the government imposes on its citizens. Read the story at Bloomberg.com.