Tuesday, April 15, is the deadline for filing income tax returns. But Tax Freedom Day for Americans, on average, is April 21 this year. That is the day on which, according to The Tax Foundation, we as a nation will have earned enough money to pay our local, state and federal tax bills.

Since President Barack Obama took office, Tax Freedom Day has grown later and later, in a steady march toward crushing Americans under a high tax burden. When Obama took office in 2009, Tax Freedom Day was April 10.

Paying our tax bills, again, on average, will suck up 30.2 percent of what we Americans earn this year.

And that is only the half of it, as The Tax Foundation points out. Unwilling to risk demanding higher taxes to cover all its increase in the size of government, the White House and members of Congress have increased borrowing.

The national debt has topped $17 trillion – more than $53,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. When Obama took office, the debt was $10.8 trillion – about $35,000 for every resident of the country then.

Spending the entire nation into the poorhouse is not most people’s idea of fighting poverty.