Rep. Mike Pence (IN) wrote an op/ed today for the The Star Press. See an excerpt of "Washington Needs Fiscal Discipline":
Today is one of the most dreaded days of the year: Tax Day. As millions of Hoosiers file their income taxes today, it is a painful reminder of how much of their hard-earned money goes to Washington.
At a time when unemployment in Indiana is 9.8 percent and still higher in nearly all of the counties I represent, there isn't a working family, small business or family farm in East Central Indiana that isn't making tough choices and practicing the kind of fiscal restraint that will see them through these tough times. They rightly expect that the taxes they pay are spent in a frugal and sensible way.
Yet, instead of discipline we see recklessness; instead of cutting back we see more debt and more deficits being piled on future generations as President Obama and Democrats in Congress continue to force through policies that will increase taxes and take our nation further down the fiscal path that many, including the director of the Congressional Budget Office, have called "unsustainable."
Albert Einstein once said that "the hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax," and it's not hard to see why. Currently, the top 40 percent of taxpayers pay nearly all federal income taxes while the bottom 40 percent actually have negative income tax liabilities, meaning they receive cash payments for taxes they don't pay.
This perverse structure actually stifles growth and innovation when entrepreneurial investment is precisely what is needed to get this economy moving again. Combined with state and local taxes, the taxpayer burden claims nearly one-third of the average American's income. That means most Americans have probably worked the first three months of this year just to pay their taxes.