Check out this circle economic flow:
http://economics.about.com/od/economics-basics/ss/The-Circular-Flow-Model.htm What this chart doesn't show, is the government is a parasite in the middle.
They can tax the producer, the middlemen, the consumer. The more they tax, the less goods and services produced, the more the product costs. There is no free lunch.
Government has to provide the basic things that people or producers can't produce such as:
Military defence, roads, bridges, canals. Anything else the government does costs money for the producers and consumers.
Education was once taken care of by parents and chruches. America had no public education when our country was founded, yet our population was the most educated in the world at the time. Chruches started the first colleges and universities, such as the Ivy league schools. Government didn't get into education until the early 1800s and then it was locally controlled. States built universities, but didn't get involved in basic education, that was still local.
Military defence started with a local militia of volunteers, not paid soldiers.
Face it, government is way too big. Too many unproductive people on the dole. To many taxes on producing corporations already. Tax rates should be flat all the way up and down the line. So if you are a potential Bill Gates or someone, you start off in a garage, you pay x% tax, the more you make, you still pay the same x% tax. Otherwise, I have known people to turn down a raise at work because it put them in a higher tax bracket and they would have taken home LESS money. Taxes work both ways. Tax the rich too much, they go to another country that taxes less. Same with tobacco tax, tax ciggarettes too much, and people will travel to another state, or to an Indian Reservation to buy them. Tax alcohol too much and people with start moonshining.
If you took EVERY PENNY from EVERY millionare and billionare in America, it would only reduce the national debt by 10%. Like Romney said, he was going to look at every government program and see if it is worth borrowing money from China to pay for it, if not cut it out.
The federal government could operate at far less money with the same services by turning a lot over to the states. Another way is to let the national guard handle emergency relief since they are always the first on the scene, are more highly organised, have generators, MRE's, water, blankets, clean up equipment. FEMA is a joke. They ran out of water the other day. A woman with 3 kids in Alabama can make more money with section 8 housing allowance, welfare, and food stamps, plus the kids eat free at school, than she can working minimum wage. Freebies should not exceed what someone working minimum wage can make. I have seen guys at work buy food stamps several years ago at half the face value because someone wanted money and had all the food they needed. I think they should increase production of MRE's and hand them out instead of food stamps. People would get tired of them and want to work, get an education to get a better job.
