4/15/2022

My Dear Friend, JRB,

            Usually this would be tax-day, but this year, it’s not. That gives me 3 more days to finish up. I am close, thanks to the wonders of Turbo Tax. In an ideal world, we’d have a flat tax so filing taxes would be a breeze, but nothing is simple in this world, so I have to answer all of the weird questions about whether I’m blind, a farmer, a veteran or a preacher.

Please make some noise about the Simple Return system that is used by most of the Scandinavian countries, where the government sends tax payers a form with all the info filled out & asks for a confirmation. This could work for half of the people in our country because they work for one employer & get interest from one bank. The IRS already can easily put those 2 pieces of info together & usually the taxes have already been taken out. My friends at Turbo Tax have been lobbying against the Simple Return so you’ll have to out shout them.

It looks like you had a lovely time in NC yesterday. I got a smile out of the photo of you shaking hands with Michael Regan’s son, Matthew. What did you, two, talk about on your ride to NC A&T in the Beast? I don’t think Matthew cares about Pell Grants or the new Toyota lithium factory that’s planned for Greensboro. At age 7, I would guess he has a favorite video game & may play T-ball. Perhaps you just talked about favorite foods.

When you go to church today, please pray for the people of Burma. Reuters reports that the Tatmadaw has razed at least 100 villages since the coup, including several in the country’s Buddhist heartland where most of the food is grown. The UN is warning of severe food shortages there. Please see what we can do to help.

Have a nice weekend at Camp David. It looks like it’s a wonderful spring day there today. Make sure to get out & enjoy the sunshine.

BYBS,