I'd say military and infrastructure is all the feds should be in charge of. Schools should be left to the states. I agree with the below comment, that food (necessities) should be tax exempt. However sweets, sodas, and other non-essentials should be taxed. I would provide the caviat that they should be taxed at the same rate as everything else. There should be NO "sin" taxes at the federal level, if the states want to make those so be it.

Very good point. It reminds me of a line from a movie. "I don't set any goals, that way I never fail!"

More than that, the wealthy (and indeed even the middle class like myself) have most of their savings invested in the market. If you make it too punitive, they (I) will take my money out of the market and put it into hard assetts.

Take that to extremes, and that's where there is a run on the banks. When banks don't have money, they can't lend money. It's a downward cycle.

Did I call you an "asshole"? No, you are an uninformed man spewing class-warfare rhetoric that you probably learned from some socialist professor or teacher. You don't understand how economics work, but feel you are being cheated because people have told you that is the case.

So let’s break this down a point at a time, and see if we can’t figure out where we differ.

“Well I am hoping Obama /Biden win this election, not because Obama has been a great president. To the contrary, I actually find him to be George W Bush all over again, but thats the problem with Romney too. Obama has proven himself to be a whore to big business, to continue favoring the 1% with extended tax cuts and capital gains tax cuts that the country can not afford. He has not made any move to punish big business for outsourcing and his attempt to tax overseas accounts was weak at best. His Obama care is a misserable failure unless you are a CEO to a health insurance company, then you are loving it. Wall street rebounded just as strong as ever, corporate proffits are pouring in, but no moves to direct that wealth towards the middle class.”

So he’s been a failure of a President, but you still want him to win because he’s going to do better when his political ambitions to be re-elected have been satiated? There is really no such thing as the “1%” it’s just a class warfare argument, the top earners in the this country agree with just as many things as the rest of the country i.e. nothing. For every Koch brother there is a George Soros, and for every Sheldon Adelson there is a Warren Buffett.

Why should businesses be punished for outsourcing jobs? If we as a country make it too expensive for a business to operate here, what are they supposed to do? There are certain businesses that are geographically tied, but for those that are not, why would they continue to do business in a climate that is hostile to them?

”The only desperate hope I have is that if Obama gets a second term he wont be chicken shit and actually do what needs to be done to help the majority. Romney/Ryan will only continue to try and break the backs of the already overburdened middle class.”

The middle class is “overburdened”? By what pray tell? Paying for the social welfare of people in lower income brackets? Did you know that If are married and have a child, you can collect food stamps as long as you make less than $65,000/yr? Why does anyone making $65k need foodstamps!? There are a myriad of social programs like this that cost billions of dollars per year. That is what is hampering the economy, not the “1%”

“So what part of the budget do you suggest they trim the most from ? I happen to agree that spending could and should be cut, but from what I see I imagine the areas I feel would not be that of others. I will say though that I believe I read our military budget is greater than the next ten countries combined. Anyone worried about defending this country should wake up and see it needs protecting in the economy before it worries about any military action.”

Yes, good idea, let’s start our cuts from one of the only Federal programs that the Constitution explicitly tells the government it’s responsible for. In fiscal year 2010, total military expenditures accounted for 20% of the Federal budget. Considering that it is a Constitutional obligation that our Federal government proved for the national defense, that percentage doesn’t bother me... the total amount spent does.
If we want to protect the economy, we can easily do that by pulling government back.

Go to a sensible tax system that doesn’t have all the minutia. Flat Tax, or Fair Tax. I’m fine with either one. Stop the overt regulation of every economic sector in our economy. Let businesses do what they do, and only use government to mitigate disputes between companies and private citizens. Pull the federal government back to where it is provided for national defense, and infrastructure improvements.

Government expenditures accounted for 24% of GDP last year. That means that 24% of all the money spent was spent by the government. That is not sustainable. Europe is finding that out, we should look at the mess they have made and go the exact opposite way.

And the DEMOCRATIC controlled Senate hasn't proposed much less passed a budget in over four years! Yes, the Dems controlled Congress for the last two years of Bush's tenure. Look at the spending spree, and see when it started. It was 2006. Yeah, Bush was horrible on ecconomic policy, but we've more than doubled down on that policy.

I love how people blame the Republicans in Congress for obstructing Obama's agenda, when he had a Fillibuster proof Democratic majority in both houses of congress for his first two years.