Protesters in Boston on Wednesday complain that government is growing too large.

Editor's Note: See Jeffrey Toobin and David Gergen discuss the Tea Party protests tonight on AC360 at 10PM ET.

Jeffrey Toobin
CNN Senior Analyst

One of the great journalism projects of the next year will be untangling the forces at work in the anti-Obama movement.

Today we see it on display in the the Tea Party movement - which seems to me to embody an amorphous set of grievances that includes anti-bailout, too-high-taxes and too-much-regulation.

The resolution in Texas about honoring the Tenth Amendment, another part of this movement, has no legal effect, and it's actually a less-extreme version of the secession movement that has started to bubble up in Texas and elsewhere.

The real mystery for me is whether this is just ordinary political grumbling, which is perfectly appropriate, or the start of something worse - a quasi-militia movement that could become sinister and dangerous.

Jack Gray
AC360 Producer/Writer 

So I had just finished up my usual Wednesday morning routine – waving in the background at the Today show and stocking up on soy hair paste – when it dawned on me:  Today is April 15th, the annual deadline for Americans to file their income tax returns.  Unless of course you’re a politician in which case it’s totally optional.

My friends have tried to convince me to use one of those do-it-yourself filing services like TurboTax.  But I’m old-fashioned.  I prefer the expertise of a Certified Public Accountant.  The kind of accountant who reminds me – in between smoke rings – that it was income tax evasion that ultimately brought down Al Capone.  The kind of accountant who – while simultaneously winking and adjusting his toupee – tries to stump me with a question about Capone having syphilis.  Nice try, pal, but do you really think I’d be working in cable news if I wasn’t an expert on organized crime and venereal diseases?

I know what you’re thinking:  hey, an accountant is an accountant, what’s the difference?  Well, I’ll tell you the same thing I told Bernie Madoff:  I’m not giving my social security number to anyone whose office doesn’t smell like apple Febreze and crushed dreams.

Or maybe you’re thinking: What kind of an idiot can’t do his own taxes?  Well, the fact is that math scares me.  Math and squirrels.

It turns out, by the way, that it’s rather difficult to find an accountant who shares my fiscal philosophy.  I remember one who had the nerve to take issue with my $27,000 deduction for ear candling.  “The next thing you’re going to tell me,” I shouted as I threw a stapler at his head, “is that I can’t claim my kimonos as a work expense.”  I would have stormed out of his office had I not been up to three hole-punches on his “buy four tax prep sessions and get a complimentary emery board” promotional coupon.

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Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

The April 15 deadline to file your taxes is just days away, but today is “Tax Freedom Day.”

Americans had to work 103 days from January 1 before they earned enough to pay their taxes for 2009, according to the Tax Foundation. Everything after that is theoretically theirs to keep.

April 13 is the earliest date since 1967. That's eight days earlier than 2008’s “Tax Freedom Day” and a full two weeks earlier than 2007’s.

The Tax Foundation cited two reasons for the shift to an earlier date: The recession has reduced tax collections faster than it has reduced income; plus, the Obama administration's stimulus package includes large temporary tax cuts for 2009 and 2010.

So with millions of Americans facing job losses and the threat of foreclosure, what do you do if you can't pay your taxes? IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman will make an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington today to discuss his agency's new initiatives to help those in financial distress, including giving IRS employees the flexibility to adjust or defer tax payments for certain taxpayers in hardship situations.

Shulman is also expected to highlight the new tax credits available this year, such as those for first time home buyers and car buyers, and give offer advice on what to do if you're having trouble paying your taxes.

CNNMoney.com has launched a special section: “Get Ready for April 15”

In it, you will find tax tips for the unemployed, advice for 10 million late filers and 8 tips to slash your tax bill.

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Come October I'll have no incentive to work anymore.

The Wall Street Journal
Jonathan Clements

Like Bernie Madoff, I've got the government coming after my money. Unlike Madoff, I didn't do anything wrong.

The House of Representatives, alas, thinks otherwise. Last Thursday, 328 members voted for a bill that would slap a 90% surtax on my bonus, with Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel dismissing the payout I received in January as "repugnant to everything that decent people believe in." The Senate is considering a similar bill.

All of this might come as a surprise to those of you who recognize my byline. Until a year ago, I was The Wall Street Journal's personal-finance columnist - and widely considered to be a friend of the ordinary investor.

But that was then. In April 2008, I left to join a new Citi venture. (What follows are my views - not those of Citigroup Inc.) For the past year, I thought I was involved in building a wonderful, customer-friendly business that minimizes conflicts of interest, favors index funds, and helps everyday Americans with their entire financial lives.

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