Tax Day is an affront to the American people. Here's why.

Tax day is less than two weeks away, and the American people are once again confronted with the gross reality of their negligent and reckless federal government. While no one in America looks forward to April 15 — we have the Sixteenth Amendment to thank for this dreaded day — it would be far worse if we actually understood where our taxes were going.

As anyone who’s ever attempted to navigate the convoluted maze of filing taxes knows, the U.S. tax code is highly complex and notoriously expensive. According to Demian Brady, Vice President of Research for the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, Americans spend a whopping $104 billion annually on simply preparing their taxes. Additionally, this nightmarish process burns an estimated 6.55 billion hours. Professor of Taxation and editor-in-chief of the Tax Law Review, Deborah Schenk, in a statement that sounds wildly out of touch, explained that filing taxes in the U.S. is more complicated than in other countries because “we’re a very sophisticated, complex economy and that requires a very sophisticated tax system.”

Most Americans have experienced this so-called “very sophisticated tax system” firsthand. What isn’t as evident is what Washington does with the money after they take it. Sure, tax season is a hassle, but it at least might be manageable if we could trust that Uncle Sam would manage the money responsibly. But we can’t.

Far from it, recent reports from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) show that the federal government made a staggering $236 billion in “improper payments” last year, up from $35 billion 20 years ago. GAO defines improper payments as “those that should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount.”

“We have found that these payments represent a material deficiency or weakness in internal controls,” the report alleges. “Specifically, we have noted that the federal government is unable to determine the full extent of its improper payments or to reasonably assure that appropriate actions are taken to reduce them.”

Imagine being able to steal thousands of dollars from hundreds of millions of constituents through a crushing tax code… simply to lose $236 billion of it because you are “unable” to manage money.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the worst of it.

According to the Constitution, “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States….” “For the laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised,” explained Thomas Jefferson. “They are not to lay taxes ad libitum for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union…. To consider the latter phrase, not as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please, which might be for the good of the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless.”

Well, so much for that. Instead of strictly adhering — as Jefferson recommended and other Founders practiced — to expenditures that advance the good of the entire nation, Uncle Sam has opened a charity by which he donates our money to his personal favorite parochial causes.

For instance, in 2023, Washington spent a mind-boggling $33.2 million on a “Monkey Island” in South Carolina (this 3,000-monkey colony reportedly has ties to Dr. Anthony Fauci), $12 million to test the sleeping habits of meth-induced monkeys (apparently, they really like monkeys), nearly $4 million to experiment on “gambling” monkeys (again, what is it with the monkeys?!), $6 million to boost Egyptian tourism (because, you know, the Founders meant to say the “general welfare of Egypt”), and $2.7 million to study Russian cats on treadmills. Oh, and they lost money to a Barbie Doll photo scam. Altogether, Sen. Rand Paul, who compiled the above data, calculated that Uncle Sam wasted $900,000,000,000 last year alone.

And you paid for that.

There’s no doubt about it: Washington, D.C., is on a spending high, courtesy of “We the People.” Of course, We the People never agreed to this level of taxation, but until we force them to stop, the prodigious spending will continue apace. Fiscal responsibility is utterly foreign to our elected officials, even as financial freedom in America slowly vanishes. Fortunately, the Founders provided the states with a constitutional provision to push back against the insanity.

“The obvious solution is for us to use the same constitutional process that was used to expand Congress’ power to tax—but in reverse,” said Convention of States Senior Vice President for Legislative Affairs Rita Peters. “The same article that gave Congress power to propose the 16th Amendment provides the states a way to propose amendments to limit income tax rates, restrain federal spending power, and require the feds to balance the budget. We don’t have to keep feeding the monster.”

To join us in the fight to rein in the federal government and restore financial sanity for future generations, sign the Convention of States petition below!