April 15th has come and gone. Like many others, I have ground the bullet between my teeth and sent off payments to both Federal and state governments. I suppose that I should feel a sense of civic pride, since, as Pat Moening so clearly pointed out in his most recent post, if I was to ignore my tax obligations I would be adding to the burden of my fellow taxpayers.

But I suspect that the majority of my fellow taxpayers do not enjoy paying taxes and that many, like me, feel that our current tax burden is onerous and the result of out-of-control, free-spending politicians and bureaucrats. Certainly the attendance at "tea parties" over the past couple of days might indicate a growing dissatisfaction with our burdensome system of "tax and spend" at both national and local levels.

The reckless expansion of the national budget deficit should be sufficient cause to refute the administration's rush toward a socialist utopia. President Obama's plans to frantically borrow and spend have caused the Congressional Budget Office to project a $1.85 trillion deficit for 2009, tripling the 2008 deficit of $500 billion and indicating deficits totaling $9 trillion over the next decade resulting in a tripling of the national debt.

And we are unhappy with our current tax burden?

The campaign promises of "tax relief" for 95% of the American public were nothing more than a campaign tactic and President Obama has already increased taxes (65 cents a pack for cigarettes, more than the sum total of the cumulative six previous increases, with the effect being felt the most by lower-income purchasers) and is incubating myriad plans for additional tax revenues that will mean increases in taxes for all of the public.

These plans will result in more government, still more debt and a dependent citizenry. I have previously made the projection that if we want a preview of the future and see what life under Obama and the Leftist polices espoused by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will be like, we have only to look at the current miseries bedeviling the state of Maine. Talk about a double whammy!

Can there be any question that our nation is in dire straits and that the main cause is a blatant grab for power that has escalated from the time of Franklin Roosevelt and resulted in governmental intrusion far in excess of constitutional limitations?

The framers of the Constitution never intended central government to be allocated overriding power over the States or their inhabitants. "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people" - Amendment X, Constitution of the United States.

Government is responsible for providing a decent measure of social and national security and a legal and regulatory framework that allows a civil society and the free market to flourish. Necessary restrictions in the form of the division of powers among the Executive Branch, Congress and the Judiciary were designed to prevent the tyranny currently prevalent and particularly noticeable in the Executive Branch and the Judiciary. Congress, the true representatives of the will of the people, has become derelict in their responsibilities and given over to preserving their own privileged status.

As a conservative, I believe in and support the politics of individual, social and fiscal responsibility. I also believe in America and the special place that it has become in the world.

Yes, I will continue to pay my taxes and grit my teeth on April 15th but I will also work to correct what I consider to be policies and practices that I feel are damaging to our citizens and to our country.

Congress may be shirking its duties, but the people of the United States (and Maine) hold the power to make our lives better - if we are willing to coalesce and exercise that power.

We, the people, can control our destiny but only if we throw off the yoke of Party politics and deny the political class their visions of self-importance, unrestrained power and privilege.

They are, after all, our servants, granted status only through being selected to represent our wishes and hopes.

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