On what areas do you think the government should have very limited abilities, and on what areas do you think the government should be allowed some or a lot of power?

Instead of offering free health-care to the poor the goobermint should offer hookers and blow to the needing. That would be money well spent.

Federal government should maintain a powerful standing military and regulate interstate trade as well as overseas trade. Other than that, the states should have the final say.

Quoted: Federal government should maintain a powerful standing military and regulate interstate trade as well as overseas trade. Other than that, the states should have the final say.

Why a large military?

Edit: to the O/P's question, no clue yet.

Quoted: Federal government should maintain a powerful standing military and regulate interstate trade as well as overseas trade. Other than that, the states should have the final say.

Yep, and they can start by lowering taxes so the states can raise theres and we can have more say in where our money goes. Acting as the Fed should, they wont need all of this money.

They can start by building a great big wall.

GUN CONTROL



j/k

The government should be "Big" on protecting the constitution and the American way of life....

Shouldn't be big on ANYTHING.

A big enough military, not a giant one.

And as small as possible in every other area.

Space exploration and nuclear fusion energy



- and other areas where an initial investment is too high for private industry to get involved

Quoted: Space exploration and nuclear fusion energy - and other areas where an initial investment is too high for private industry to get involved

I should have thought of that space stuff too, since I make my living off of it.

Big:

National Security:

CIA, NSA, Border Enforcement/Immigration Enforcement, DOD, Emergency/Disaster Assistance.

Limited: Everything else

Government should be big on staying SMALL.

Provide for the common defense.  Limit welfare to a max of six months every 10 years.  Build a really useful wall on our southern border.  Otherwise, the Feds should STFU and stay out of our hair.  (looks over shoulder to see if Big Brother is watching)

It should be big on reading the CONUS and staying within it.  Basically speaking, Article 1 says what Congress can do.  Amendment 10 says that anything that isn't found in Article 1, Congress can't do.  It really is as simple as that.  If Congress isn't explicitly allowed to act on an issue and they do, it's basically an illegal and unconstitutional act.  Don't like it?  Amend the CONUS within the proper means outlined in it and let Congress do whatever.  Until then, they need to fuck off and start respecting the rights of the people they supposedly represent.  

I think it was already well decided when it was written.

[Constitution for the United States of America] We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. [Section 8.] The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States; To establish Post Offices and post Roads; To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations; To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; --And To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof. [Section 9.] The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person. The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it. No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed. No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken. No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State. No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another; nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another. No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time. No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. [Section 10.] No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws; and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress. No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

Quoted: I think it was already well decided when it was written. [Constitution for the United States of America] We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. [Section 8.] The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States; To establish Post Offices and post Roads; To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations; To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; --And To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof. [Section 9.] The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person. The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it. No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed. No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken. No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State. No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another; nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another. No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time. No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. [Section 10.] No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws; and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress. No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

Don't go dragging that thing into this discussion! Arfcommers are perfectly happy living under the delusion that the federal government doesn't have any powers and that the states have the right to do whatever they want, however they want.

Little involvement: welfare, healthcare, taxes, liberal programs, pie

very involved: Programs to give tax payers back surplus military firearms/items free for just being American, strong defense, death penalty for recitivists/molesters

just a few, I could go on...

National defense. Nothing else.

National defense and a FEW other things,  such as providing funding for infrastructure on a nationwide scale.   Our interstate highway system is a perfect example.    It couldn't have come to exist if left to the individual states to start that project.  

Standardization of utilities and related technologies.   Electricity and communications should be the same everywhere.   And it is.  The government should OVERSEE this,  but not actually
be involved in the design and construction of such systems.  

The federal government should be responsible for organizing all activities and projects that
involve multiple (or all) states.       But when it comes to things that do not go outside of
the borders of an individual state,  the federal government should be entirely "hands off"
and leave it to the state governments to handle.

And, international trade and relations with other countries should be handled by the federal government.


In short,  only what the states can't handle alone.




CJ

Since August 6th 1945, we have had no choice but to have the best military we can muster.  We will have to watch our backs from here on out.

Im for a small .gov in most other aspects

Drugs coming into our country

Illegal aliens coming into our country

I agree with everything already posted but would like to add:

Balance the damn budget. There is a lot of crap that doesn't need gov't funding.....

I don't know about you guys, but I'm a pretty big fan of federally inspected meat.

I'm big on border security, food/drug safety, and interstate commerce.  And of course, promoting the word of Jesus Christ.  

....oh, I have another one for Government regulation. There should be a whole department tasked to insure that no two women get the same looking breast implants. I feel the government should provide some leadership in this area so as to insure diversity and individuality in our American culture.

Exploitation of children, combating of
Nuclear weapons, preventing proliferation of

Military. Crime, I include poisoned products under 'crime,' so, pretty much what everyone else has said.

Quoted: Military. Crime, I include poisoned products under 'crime,' so, pretty much what everyone else has said.

I agree, the Government should also go after people who post bogus barbeque sauce recipes and say "it's the wip!".

I think the military should be disbanded and re-appropriated to the states.  

Quoted: It should be big on reading the CONUS and staying within it.  Basically speaking, Article 1 says what Congress can do.  Amendment 10 says that anything that isn't found in Article 1, Congress can't do.  It really is as simple as that.  If Congress isn't explicitly allowed to act on an issue and they do, it's basically an illegal and unconstitutional act.  Don't like it?  Amend the CONUS within the proper means outlined in it and let Congress do whatever.  Until then, they need to fuck off and start respecting the rights of the people they supposedly represent.

CONUS means "Continental United States".

Quoted: Shouldn't be big on ANYTHING. A big enough military, not a giant one. And as small as possible in every other area.

Sometimes, you need a large organization to handle large tasks. If you have too many small, independent organizations trying to handle a large task, it becomes a cluster. The military isn't the only organization that needs to be large.

Have you ever played a game where you manage a nation or some such?

Say, Axis & Allies or Age of Empires or Galactic Battlegrounds or Empire at War or what have you. You can only have a small military if you put a serious effort into technology and research, so that fewer units can do the job it would otherwise have taken 3 times as many to do.

You need enough standing military force to deter attack on your infrastructure while your economy feeds research and builds a surplus for a war surge, and you need enough variation to handle all probable threats without over focusing on one scenario.

It helps like in age of empires to have allies or at least maintain nuetrality so your merchant ships can get that gold by trading without fear of being sunk if left unattended, or without having to assign warships to protect them.

As for the real world, I'd say priority one should be strategic air defense, make an air/icbm attack so costly or unviable that no one capable ever trys it. This will mean constant research and upgrading but thems the breaks.

Priority two should be naval defense, make it so tight that any invading force large enough to make landfall will have left most of its self on the ocean floor.

Priority three would be ground capability on physical borders I'd guess, but nothing heavy, just flexible enough to go heavy when and where needed. Air assets would be a great component to add to this force.

NASA, that shit needs a gigantic funding boost.

Infrastructure that is vital to interstate commerce must be maintained, improved, and guarded I'd say.

As for the new generation of threats, the stateless actors and such, it would help to de-sheepify the population and have them prepared to eliminate or avoid such threats until a targeted reaction force can get to them. Tighter control over who we let into the country and vigorous tracking of them while they're here might help as well.

I imagine you'd want the fedgov to ensure free and fair trade, and you really got to watch out for organized crime messing with that via labor racketeering.

I dont know if you'd want the fedgov to do anything about outsourcing, i mean we cant all be computer technicians or burger flippers, as it stands now the welfare rolls have a sizable chunk of folk who could have been put to work in those outsourced jobs, the problem is really gov interference creates/encourages outsourcing; minimum wage laws and over regulation cause the companies to see outsourcing as desirable.

In event of major warfare you kinda need production capability in your yard where you can guard it, or at least transfer military production into the hands of the mil and triple their budget so they can man the bullet/bomb/bean factories. If vital things you need are produced in other nations, you are in a certain sense bound to those nations and obligated to see to their well being.

If we need widgets to make tanks, and no widgets are manufactured here at home, we have to send our navy to Bungholivania to break up a blockade from Asscrackistan to get our widgets to build our tanks, hence putting us in the middle of a bunghole/asscrack fight.

And anyone whose been there can tell you, being stuck a'twixt a battling bunghole and attacking asscrack is a shitty situation.

Domestic matters, for the most part, should be left up to the states so long as the whole of the bill of rights is incorporated and enforced, maybe give the fedgov a funding reward everytime they stop a state from fucking its inhabitants in violation of the BoR or the state constitution.

We should replace welfare with dormitory prison retreats where you can go and stay high/drunk/laid whatever until your number is called, whereupon you are made into soylant green to feed the cattle which are used to feed the productive members.....*shrug* I dunno maybe....

The answer to the question is answered with a simple knee-jerk "as little as possible thank you" but the devils in the details....

Where SHOULD it be big?  It shouldn't.  If it abode by the Constitution, it wouldn't be very big at all.


But I get what you're saying.  In this order:

Dept of Defense. (National defense)
Dept of State. (International relations)

Those should be the only "large" sections of the government.

Quoted: Have you ever played a game where you manage a nation or some such?

You aren't actually comparing a video game to real life, are you?

Sadly andy, yes i am.

Its the closest thing i have since ive never ran a country before.  

Quoted: Sadly andy, yes i am. Its the closest thing i have since ive never ran a country before.

Well, I didn't mean to sound too harsh.  Just remember though, they're just games.  Written by people.  If they were truly realistic, they wouldn't be fun.

does it really matter?

Quoted: The government should be "Big" on protecting the constitution and the American way of life....

Not the gov'ts job, its ours.  Remember the gov't was created by the states via the US Constitution.  

Quoted: On what areas do you think the government should have very limited abilities, and on what areas do you think the government should be allowed some or a lot of power?

Am I to assume you mean federal government?  There are a lot of places where the feds should have little or absolutely no power but rather be handled on a state or even county level.

ETA:  big gov on defense of the nation; ie the military (i'm for a BIG military), international trade (both ways... of which they're doing a terrible job of right now IMO) and probably interstate travel by land, air and water. (like the DOT and FAA)

As for the feds being in charge of space exploration.  I totally disagree here.  At this moment, they've been the only ones to invest enough to get there, but it won't be long at all (25 years or so by my reckoning) before the private sector jumps into it and then the feds should get out.

I am a strict constitutionalist...  if it isn't specifically spelled out, the government should not be involved in it...

But, that train has already left the station....  we have the majority of voters willing to vote themselves benefits in exchange for ever decreasing freedom and liberty and expanded government.   More than half of our federal budget goes to pay for ever increasing entitlement programs.. and the cost of unfunded entitlement obligations is a number we already have no hope of paying for...  and many presidential candidates are running on a platform of expanding and increasing government programs???   Where is the money coming from?  How long can we let this train continue?

So how do you stop the runaway train???      I fear it is too late.    

Whether we eventually backrupt the gov't (1) or there is some form of revolt... either outcome is going to be very bad...

(1)  Well...  it is actually your money, not the governments...

National defense
Interstate freeways
Border security

Thats all.

Quoted: Big: National Security: CIA, NSA, Border Enforcement/Immigration Enforcement, DOD, Emergency/Disaster Assistance. Limited: Everything else

+1

should be be pushing for a smaller gov,

.Gov has become too large an entity to stop now or even slow down--what they say, we do.  Period.

They want to take our gun...we will hand them over.

They want to raise taxes...we will pay them.

They want to impose martial law...we will stay in at night.

As much as we all like to piss and moan, and talk about standing up for this and that, and lines in the sand, when it comes right down to it, we will obey.  We're sheep.  And all sheep are good for is following the lead of their Sheppard--even if we're led off the edge of a cliff.  

Military and Research (be it Medical or Technological, Space programs stuff like that.)