Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

It is Tax Day in the U.S. Time to file your federal income tax with the IRS by midnight.

Republican congressional candidate Tom Barrett is using the day to highlight what he calls the crushing burden of inflation and taxes on small business owners and Michigan families.

"Americans are paying more and more in taxes, and getting less and less value for that," he told WHMI News.

"We have a wide open border that's completely unsecure with drugs and illegal human trafficking coming across. We have communities that are less safe. We have a foreign policy that is placing more and more strain abroad. All of these things we expect our tax dollars to go toward first and foremost, seem to be the last thing that is paid for."

Barrett says there is misappropriation of our hard-earned cash at the state and federal level.

"Whether that's a $4,500 coffee maker in Lansing. Or whether it's stipends and benefits for people in our country illegally. These seem to be the things that rise to the top under this administration."

Barrett was in Lansing Monday, signing a "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" from the group Americans for Tax Reform.

You can find more details at the link below.