The resentment comes when the taxpayer sees how their
tax money is spent, for instance New York City supporting thousands of illegal aliens while their own in need citizens are shoved to the back of the line. - LM

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Yes, even though taxes are necessary, it is the wasteful spending that really aggravates the taxpayer the most.

Seeing their hard earned money, forcibly remitted to Uncle Sugar, only to see it pissed away on un-needed or frivolous things. Back in the days of my working in a Fortune 200, when it came to preparing next years budgets, you were challenged on proposed spending as being either for "must haves" or "nice to haves". With the US Government, they don't have to defend the frivolous, everything is a must have, and we end up funding things like that famous study of shrimp running on a treadmill.

Despite the regular ridicule of the pork tucked away in various spending bills, the practice continues as an almost in your face to the taxpayers. The spenders will say, "Yes but this is such a tiny percent of the federal budget, you should be ashamed for even noticing it." The position that this so called pork is "so tiny it doesn't matter" is a separate insult to the taxpayer besides the wasteful spending itself.

The more cerebral defenders will say, "Yes, but the pork is necessary as the medium of exchange by which consensus is formed, without pork, there will be gridlock." There may be some unfortunate truth to that. Sigh!