Federal government waste and Larry Doby Day.
April 15 is noteworthy for two things. It is Tax Day and it is when Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day. First, Tax Day is a reminder of all of the time wasted filling out one’s taxes. The Treasury Department reports that 169 million Americans file individual income tax returns every year. On average, each spends about 12 hours and 37 minutes completing the forms. That is more than 2.1 billion total hours not devoted to productive activity. The New York Times points out that this translates to $94 billion per year or three times the GDP of Ireland. Since JD Vance is supposed to be investigating waste and fraud, maybe he should address the waste of complying with our burdensome Rube Goldberg tax code with its 2,652 pages and it’s over 70,000 pages of regulations, guidance and interpretations. A flat tax of 18 percent on all income with no exemptions and no exceptions would reduce all that to one sentence. Of course then all those tax lawyers and accountants would have to find something productive to do with themselves.
Also speaking of waste, a report from something called the Competitive Enterprise Institute says that “Federal regulation’s total compliance costs and economic effects are at least $2.153 trillion annually, and certainly vastly higher.”
https://cei.org/studies/ten-thousand-commandments-2025/
I thought Trump was supposed to deregulate? But these numbers do not show it because the regulatory costs have remained virtually unchanged during his term. When Trump came into office he noted “the United States is drastically overregulated” and that “the Code of Federal Regulations contains over 48,000 sections, stretching over 175,000 pages.” Well even though there are now almost 500,000 fewer Federal employees, how many fewer regulations are there? Some put the cost savings of Trump’s deregulatory efforts at a piddling $15 billion which is a mere rounding error. Do you know that there are 445 federal agencies with the authority to issue regulations and rules? In 2025 those agencies issued 2,441 regulations. That was down from the 3,248 that were issued in Biden’s last year in office. Everything is relative. In 2025, 61,584 pages were added to the Federal Register which was actually the lowest total added since 1992. Thank goodness for small miracles!
Jackie Robinson – Larry Doby Day
I have posted before about how much I hate Jackie Robinson Day where all players wear Robinson’s number 42. Again, I don’t hate Jackie Robinson. Quite the contrary, I admire him greatly. It is that I hate it that Larry Doby – a great player who is also in the Hall of Fame – who integrated the American League the same year that Robinson entered is ignored. Robinson started the year in Brooklyn while Doby came into the league after the all star break. I have suggested that everyone wear 42 except the Indians (Guardians) who should wear Doby’s number 14. Doby is another example that few people remember who was number 2. Who was the second man on the moon? BTW, I have four baseball jerseys, Doby, Hank Aaron (thanks to a great friend), Frank Robinson (Cincinnati not Baltimore) and Sam Jethroe – the first black player for the then Boston Braves who was the 1950 National League’s Rookie of the Year. To that point I have also suggested that there should be a day when all the major league teams were the number of their first black player.
haroldblackphd.com 
I like Jackie Robinson day. He was first in MLB. But there should be another day where each franchise honors their first black player.
Although a flat tax would be great. How about just eliminating income tax filings all together and go with a sales tax.
Bring us AI DOGE and reduce the size of Government and most importantly Government Fraud.
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I still like a flat tax but anything less burdensome would be welcome. I do also like the idea of an AI DOGE to trim government waste.
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I might add to the amount of time spent on tax regulation—I know a woman who sells material/ site access to tax laws. In order to be competitive, she ( in sales) must work out & spend time staying pretty..
I heard yesterday the head of IRS say the refunds are larger than ever, in the history of IRS..
Then I read this: ..”Increased Productivity: The IRS has processed more refunds, with officials noting the agency is issuing them “FASTER and LARGER than ever”…
Lots of grandstanding as usual- but isn’t this still the government taking our money, to begin with?..
I was fascinated with the existence of a baseball field near Southerland Ave, as teams, separate but equal, played together.
Beck Cultural Center has Knoxville baseball history, but they also have a site- that shows baseball history, AND how today’s players always stands on the shoulders of the forgotten :
..”In 1875, Charles Eaton approached Squire W. F. Yardley [ a lawyer] to pursue a suit against Cadet Frank Jones of the University Base Ball Club. Eaton worked as a hotel waiter and had created a team of talented Black men to play baseball. He decided to challenge the University Base Ball club to a game of ball, signed simply: “Charles Eaton, colored, captain.”
“… he went to Squire [W. F.] Yardley, colored, and swore out a warrant against the cadet, who he thinks ought to be willing to play base ball ‘without regard to race, color, or previous condition of servitude.’”..”
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Yes. They are giving us back our own money. A cause for celebration? We played sandlot baseball as kids. Most of us were Brooklyn Dodgers but some were NY Yankees. We were in essence an integrated team even though we all were black.
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