So Jambo asks ...

"What responsibility does the federal government have to me (economically speaking), John Q tax payer?"

My response is this:

They have the responsibility of getting out of my way. To reduce red tape & excessive govt oversight. To encourage capital risk taking and to welcome, rather then punish, financial success via the tax code (I never got a job from a poor person). They shouldn't be in the business of bailing out Sterns, mortgages, or otherwise irresponsible individuals. They have the responsibility to stay out of the health care business except to ignore tort lawyers and regulate maximum punitive damages which get the Edwards of the country rich and cause young ER doctors to spend 84k of their initial 200k salary on malpractice insurance - contributing to the proverbial $14 aspirin during your hospital stay. They have the responsibility to reduce corporate tax, which is the second highest in the Western world so that companies and jobs stay here. They have the responsibility to review, yearly, the most favored nation trading status in order to be competitive with, rather then subject to, the whims of Beijing. They have the responsibility of leadership by drilling for energy in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of California and in ANWAR whilst simultaneously inspiring a new generation to achieve landing on the moon in terms energy by providing vast contracts for a viable alternative - utilizing our single greatest asset, the rugged individual that is the American citizen. They have the constitutional responsibility to pursue our enemies and remove their blight from this earth so that the whims of Tehran don't send cold shivers up and down the spines of traders in New York, nor allow suicide bombers or highjacked planes to shut down the fianacial institutions of the greatest economic force the world has ever known. They have the responsibility to enforce our sovereignty along our borders so that neither wages nor the standard of health care provided in our hospitals continue to be depressed. They have the responsibility of providing the line item veto so that ear marks for bridges to nowhere will cease and fiscal responsibility that a 9 year old can grasp, namely you don't spend more then you have, will begin, thus raising the value of the dollar and increasing my buying power.

This message was approved by F.Ryan.......