There are lots of things that the government should be concerned about. But anyone who has read my comments on this site over the years should know what I consider to be the most overriding, pressing concern we have as a country right now:

The National Debt.

This is a problem that has repercussions on almost every aspect of national life, especially with regards to funding our short term and long term obligations, including social security and other essential government programs. It impacts our level of taxation, the value of our currency, our standard of living and indeed our standing in the world.

I recall back in the 1990's, there was a sense of American triumphalism throughout the halls of power and of academia. Authors issued calls of a new "American century", an end of history and the triumph of global democracy. Many were saying that the United States was the world's remaining superpower. Neo-Conservatives and some neo-liberals too especially wanted to cash out on the moment, but they squandered it instead on a costly war in the Middle East that will ultimately cost the United States over $3 trillion total.

Folks we're in trouble. Deep trouble. The debt we're incurring is simply unsustainable in the long term. Forget about paying off the principal on the debt--the problem I see, if we continue on this path, will be paying the compound interest on the debt. If we cannot meet our yearly interest payment, the country goes into formal default. Don't believe me? Ask Argentina, Zimbabwe, Russia or any other host of country whose central banks have gone through a formal bankruptcy and how it comes about.

Our tax dollars goes towards paying the interest on the debt. That's why we will inevitably see higher taxes over the next few years. We are already seeing the erosion of the purchasing power of the dollar, which I view as an underhanded form of taxation via monetary inflation. Printing our way out this won't solve the problem. Furthermore, we've reached the point where I can only foresee that the Federal Reserve's only solution to the debt problem will be to devalue the currency as a means to cleanse the system of its debts. It will be costly for America's position in the global economic system, but the crisis is so large that they will need to meet the problem of excess liquidity in the system by only such means.

Since we are so dependent on imports, such a policy will be disasterous for the country, as it will mean a spike in the price of consumer goods, along with a loss in the value of the dollar, which will hurt savers everywhere.

Whether it is the cost of bailing out failed banks by buying up their worthless assets (which will weigh upon the country's balance sheets for at least 10 years, thus contaminating the quality of our currency) or the cost of interminable wars in Asia, used largely as a means to prop up a failed neo-imperial model of growth, America is struggling to establish a clear strategy. Then we have massive fixed expenses, whether it be pension costs, Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, etc. that will cost the government trillions over the next few years as the Baby Boomers retire and overwhelm the system. There are so many different trends coming to a heads in the next decade that it simply overwhelms the mind.

What's so interesting about studying the rise and fall of civilizations is how fast relative declines can occur. Throughout history, the great empires always fell in the span of a few decades. In fact, many begin their decline only 10 or 20 years after reaching their peak of wealth and influence. Empire lose their influence because they begin to rely on short term, tactical thinking; they become indulgent and believe that they are invisible. But such arrogance has consequences--decision-makers develop a blind spot and fail to acknowledge the problems within their midst. All failures start and end at one point: overexpansion which leads to debt, which then leads to the debasement of the currency and loss of global influence. You see it repeated time and time again, from ancient Rome through today.

The only difference is that we live in a technological, globalized era, which means events move much faster. Processes that might have taken decades to mature can happen in the twinkling of an eye.

I'd be more hopeful if I saw that there was some visionary leadership in Washington, but unfortunately that's not the case. The times require long term, strategic thought, courageous and forward thinking policies that realistically considers the United States's position both economically and vis-a-vis other world powers. Instead, we continue to act as if our "superpower moment" never ended. The policy elites are victims of their own biases and myopic assertions and they cannot honestly assess the true state of the American project, or they don't want to come to grips with the problem. They'd rather plug holes and hope that the problem is resolved, rather than systemically rethinking their positions.

This isn't a revolutionary thought--I am making these suggestions as a means to recenter the country and its central institutions, to prevent it from collapsing under a cloud of hubris.

As for Wall Street, they also operated under the assumption of short term thinking. People thought that the party will never end and that overleveraging in debt would be a self-sustaining process. This false ideology lead to the downfall of finance in this country. When the country was in the "bubble" stage of wealth and power, the financiers took out (and lost) vast sums of wealth in fraudulent derivitatives and securitiization schemes that can only be described as Ponzi schemes, along with elements of the underground financial market, where pools of high frequency trading and other exotic financial tools reside.

An overreliance on finance created this mess, along with a childlike and overly ideological faith that these markets where self-regulating and self-sustaining. These are ideologies that spread only in times of irrational exuberance and of over complacency, when an empire is at its peak and people can fool themselves into believing that growth ad infinitum will solve all the country's problems. Well, what happens when the growth stops? You need a base from which to fall back on. If all your wealth is transitory paper money that evaporated because it was illusory, then what? This is the KEY QUESTION our nation faces today. It's time to end our illusions of grandeur and get back to reality.

America can emerge from this a strong and healthy nation. But it can only happen if we starting thinking honestly about our challenges and not be so motivated by greed and the pursuit of a unipolar moment in world history that never was in the final analysis.

Putting a bounty on dingoes. At least that would do some good.

The Federal Government should be concerned w/Senators like Larry Craig who solicit sex in an airport bathroom and Chris Dodd who is responsible for AIG/mortgage crisis.

Not really a great question to me since there are a number of things that the government should be doing and not doing. The highway situation that Franks brought up is on my list of things these idiots should be focusing on and I'd also like to ask why the fuck Katrina victims are still in FEMA trailers. Maybe the government needs to simply refocus themselves on answering the question of what they are there for. Are you there to fund Acorn? Are you there to subsidize Government Motors and still have them go bankrupt? Are you just there to prop up the shady interests that keep you where you are? Aha, perhaps they should focus on serving the damn people, huh?

Butting the hell out of things that Constitutionally are none of their business.

Funding highway construction and repair.

Stay out of the Private Sector and respect and anforce the Constitution.

That is a great question, but what I would want to know is what percentage of people see the economy as being the biggest question, or foreign policy, or the War in Iraqu, or Immigration, or Women not making a fair living wage, or people not prepared to retire, or our troubled Medicaid and health care industry, or sending our work overseas because it can be done for less, thus selling ourselves short of our own product, and not taking an active interest in what is happening in our own backyards, or downsizing to rising cost in economic downturn, or out sourcing jobs especially in telecommunications fields, ex.(please wait for at least 2 minutes, when person comes on phone, they are speaking to you in a language that is not American, even though they may say, Verizon, or some other account, they do not speak ENGLISH). 

First, let's get to the essence of GOVERNMENT: It's  THE PROTECTION RACKET.

Would we give up about 50% of our income to government if we weren't convinced it can protect us from nearly all the things we fear?

Let's examine terrorism, for example...

We know there's a threat from political and religious fanatics, both foreign and domestic, but does government really protect us from this threat?

Law enforcement (the FBI) had sufficient clues to have prevented 9/11, but decided (for reasons that escape me) that the evidence they were given wasn't credible. Now, I'm not a professional in the field, but if a flight school operator had told me there were a bunch of young Arabs asking to learn how to fly jumbo jets who weren't interested in takeoffs and landings, I would have smelled a rat.

So, we get attacked by a small band of Islamist extremists and we go into hyper fear, ceding more and more of our freedoms to Fatherland Insecurity.

This is not a partisan issue. Democratic and Republican politicians are equally to blame for scamming us, but in the final analysis, we're responsible for allowing the situation to continue.

I think we do it 'cause most of us would rather 'let George do it' than take charge of protecting our selves and our own communities.

At present, I would have to say homeland security.

Building a high-tech fence along the US/Mexico border and putting a moratorium on legal immigration.

Proferring that something so gargantuan and schizophrenic as the US federal government could ever focus on anything is unimaginable. The Congress (all 535 members), the administration, and, to a less obvious degree, the judicial branch are all singularly and individually focused on their own power and retaining it at nearly any cost. Each player shamelessly chases the glare of the camera when any amount of credit might be shared or stolen and shuns it like a vampire when the tone is derogatory or accusatory. It has become (if it hasn't always been) a morass of self-aggrandizement and preemptive blame deflecting, using ordinary people, pathetic victims, dangerous enemies (both real and imagined) and heart-tugging rhetoric and issues to accomplish its greedy objectives. No political party has ever elevated itself or its actions above this level of morass, nor is it likely any will. Try to glean some semblance of a vision from whatever candidate or party you're voting for and determine whether it is in agreement with your vision.

Curbing the present infringement on civil rights and reigning in this president's complete obsession with going beyond the limits of his executive power. . .although learning to speak at a level that doesn't induce giggles would be a nice start. . .

Getting its head out of its own behind.We need a thorough cleansing of all of the corruption,graft and dishonesty in our elected officials before the whole country falls apart at the seams.

Social and domestic issues. I want the federal government to focus on preventing the spread of AIDS, helping our homeless citizens, and cracking down on child pornography.

Protecting the homeland and restoring fiscal sanity to budget. Here we have a Republican majority in both houses of Congress and a Republican president, and they're spending money like drunken sailors, as John McCain would say. Passing massive tax cuts while at the same time presiding over record increases in non-defense and discretionary spending is not good public policy. Under the Bush Administration, discretionary spending has increased well over 30% in just four years (almost equal to the increase in discretionary spending during the 8 years of Clinton and the Republican Congress). This is a serious issue, and the only way to solve it is to get serious about our budget. Both sides are to blame, and few have taken the initiative in fixing the problem, but it is clear that something must be done to restore order to this country's fiscal house.

Protecting our people.

Marriage and the american family because it is the basis of society. If you solve the problems of families you solve the problems of the nation.

Which contestant gets voted off the island next. At least that way they would do less harm than with whatever the hell it is they're doing now.

Keeping the economy healthy, making health care available to all Americans, and fighting terrorism.

At the present time, the federal government should be focused most on restoring the economy to health, making sure our Civil Liberties do not disappear, and saving our environment, not fighting terrorists on the other side of the globe and exporting democracy.

Defending the citizens against terrorism, AND stopping illegal immigration.

Finding and correcting the root CAUSES of terrorism. Terrorism itself is a tactic, not a separable, definable entity. Once the hatred of the U.S. and the western democracies which underlies the current conflict begins to dissipate--by correcting the underlying injustices--the world will be a safer place. This is a worthy long-term goal for the federal government.

The federal government should focus more on shrinking its power back down to where our founding fathers intended it. Thanks to the likes of Abe Lincoln and FDR we now have a product of the states whose power far surprasses that of the states in every way imaginable.

Military, police force, and law courts.

Terrorism. Do you want to run the risk of a nuclear weapon being detonated in NYC? Neither do I.