Legitimate Government Expenditure

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My mother made a comment to a post of mine expressing some concerns and alarm at some of my phraseology. Let me start by saying that I have zero objection to legitimate functions of government. However, any usurpation of authority and plunder by the government to fund projects to which the government has neither right nor authority is in fact stealing.

Anyone who comes out and says I don't support legitimate functions of government misunderstands what I write. I oppose the wanton casting of coinage to the wind after the fashion exemplified in the current administration's fiscal policy. In point of fact, they spend trillions of dollars on pet projects, pork, and peculiarities while cutting the military 10%. If I were the president, one of the first things I would do is increase the DoD budget 10%, including 10% across the board raises for our soldiers. Defense of the nation is a legitimate government expense, and I support it.

As to roads, public facilities, emergency responders and the like, I challenge anyone to show me where the Constitution provides for federal support, control, and fiduciary responsibility for any of those programs. If localities want to provide those as a means of attracting and supporting residents, that is their business, but in the local area for those so inclined there are myriad planned communities where people pay $100-250/month to avail themselves of private amenities. Since I'm paying for public facilities, I choose not to pay that extra fee on top of taxes levied against me. Public facilities do not run efficiently or operate in the black. Public transportation like Amtrak regularly and routinely requires bailouts. The government never does anything as well or efficiently as the private sector, and if people really want those things, an entrepreneur will arise to satisfy that demand instead of everyone being forced by fiat to fund it.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think that every person in government wastes money. I have, as I previously posted, striven to save the University thousands of dollars henceforth and in perpetuity. I was just granted $6000 to buy a machine that will pay for itself in a year and allow us to save $5000/year for as long as we teach Microbiology courses or until the machine breaks for good, whichever comes first. My mother knows full well from personal experience however that agencies as a whole have not taken good care of me, despite the monies exacted from me by force via taxation. I have not had good experiences with law enforcement. I have been stonewalled by federal agencies. All this, and I'm a relative nobody.

Take this personally, and you're bound to disagree, but a dispassionate analysis of this and some accurate introspective into your own experience should help you recall experiences after the same fashion where you have not gotten a good return on your money from the government. Private firms on average, driven by a profit motive (whether ecumenical or fiduciary), always do better than public ones. Government has neither right nor license to interpolate itself into highways, education, recreation, and the like without first receiving permission from the people. The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has taken it unto itself, and that's my largest protest, let Henderson/Las Vegas do what they may.