Its your patriotic duty to pay taxes or at least that's what was promulgated at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. To which I respond "baloney".

Am I unpatriotic? No. I am a realists and it is evident that the Sheriffs of Nottingham under the guise of multiple Prince Johns are hustling villagers all around the country.

I had years of preparing budgets and there are clever ways of hiding money even when it is accompanied with a written rationale. I point this out because politicians and lobbyist are masters of deception when it comes to budgets.

the reality is that the so called budget being proposed is so overloaded with water over the years that if politicians didn't raise it a cent they still have plenty money to work with for years. So why do they claim without funds government cannot operate?

Simple they mis-spend, abuse, and fraud the system. They mark funds for one thing and use it for another. They spend taxpayers money apparently believing it grows on trees.

Worse yet they have no checks and balances nor measurements of performance to determine if the program is working. They institute programs that go on for infinity without ryhme or reason

The only way to cut taxes is to cut spending and the most effective way to cut spending is to shrink government. The Dept of Energy & Education have yielded us nothing but interference. The EPA is so political that its possible are nonsensical. The IRS is outlaw...I could go on but to what avail

Unpopular is the state of public unions which have the potential to bankrupt a number of states beginning with Illinois and is a tremendous burden as respects federal workers. In the private sector corporations went to cash base retirement plans because they saw the writing on the wall. they demanded more participation/contribution from workers. Not so when public unions because they yield votes and so the taxpayer who does not have the right to negotiate a public unions contract is stuck with the costs.
Its just plain maddening

Add to that the cutouts made for favorites such as the NFL, etc who make billions but are tax-exempt

So again I do not believe it is my patriotic duty to pay taxes to irresponsible people who will waste my money and build bridges to nowhere so they can get re-elected. and just think politicians are now considering adding a VAT which in many European countries surpassing 21%

citizens once revolted because of taxation without representation and whether you believe it or not its as true now as it was then