When any government needs money, they assume, “Connecticut’ll pay it,” and we don’t even protest anymore. Why not? What has become of us?

We have had the highest overall tax burden of any American since 1992, and the gap to second place is widening.

Thanks to the budget passed by Congress last month, we will also pay an extra $4,311 in federal taxes per person per year by the end of four years -- the largest increase for any state in America.

When I ran for Congress last year, one debate organizer didn’t want to include me because I had strong words on my website, for example, calling income taxes a form of theft. They were afraid I’d pepper the debate with salty language—but they soon saw the light and invited me.

For 400 years, the “devil’s advocate” was a lawyer appointed by the Roman Catholic Church to argue against promoting a candidate to sainthood, like a pro bono attorney for the prosecution instead of the defense. The devil’s advocate argued, even if he didn’t believe it, that the alleged miracles didn’t actually happen or happened in a non-miraculous way, or that the evidence was phony or weak or suspect. In other words, the devil’s advocate personified due diligence.