Quote:Defending the nation from what. the 767 people that were murdered in Chicago last year ?

 

You're bothered by the Fed Gov being a funding source for medical research and fixing bridges?   Dang, if it were for you we'd still be dealing with Polio and driving across falling bridges like the collapse we saw a few years back in Minneapolis

The federal govt has been the source of funding for those bridges like the one in Minneapolis for years and years but they failed in that role. 

 

You're creating a false choice. When I say that I do not want the Federal government with its tentacles in everything from medical research to fixing your local bridge, that doesn't mean I don't want medical research or every bridge to fall into disrepair. This is about the proper role for the the federal government. A local bridge should be maintained and paid for by the people in that city or state--the people who drive on it. When you send all the money to DC and let them play santa about which bridges get built and fixed, you end up with the money going to the districts of influential members of Congress instead of going to the bridges that actually need repair or building. The federal government doesn't really understand which bridges are crap and which are okay, the people on the ground are the ones that know. 

 

A large number of those murders in Chicago are drug and gang related. Drugs and gangs come across that border, especially this new heroine and opiate epidemic that we are seeing nationwide. The enforcement of the border, immigration, and customs are proper and enumerated powers of the Federal government. I expect them to do that function.

 

For all of your federal government largess, things in this country aren't doing so hot. We spend a lot of money on infrastructure and education among other things at the federal level and it sucks. What exactly does the federal government do well? They are inefficient, incompetent, and largely unaccountable but you want to give them more things to do. Maybe they should do fewer things and try not to muck it up. 

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