>Meanwhile the dismaying news on which you simply refuse to comment, rolls on: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/11/small-business-optimism-surges-to-highest-ever.html
>
>"U.S. small business optimism surged to a record in August as the tax cuts and deregulation efforts of President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress led to more sales, hiring and investment, according to a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business."
>
>
>Quoting CNBC quoting a business advocacy group in support of legislation that helps business owners is not too persuasive.
>
>The jury is definitely out on the tax cuts.
>
>The US government and many states have been cutting taxes since the 1980's.
>Income inequality almost tracks directly with those cuts.
>
>
>The plain truth is the US government and the states simply don't have enough money.
>The US and state roads are a mess.
>NY airports are a mess.
>NJ is shutting down commuter rail spurs because it lacks the funds to fix them.
>Go to a VA health care facility and tell me what you think of it.
>
>The litmus test will be the deficit.
>If the deficits come down and governments can perform basic tasks again, then at least one test has been passed.

Embolded part IMO is narrowing the focus too much. Besides deficit and surplus is the changing percentage to redistribution/welfare plans strangling the "basic tasks" you correctly define as messy.

Again, totally personal POV, a country has to put defense first. After that, Police and judicial system. After that infrastructure.
Some might argue that education, a healthy percentage of hospitals and utility companies not privately owned, rules and regulations are part of infrastructure. I won't argue but offer that at least transportation/roads enable military and police tasks so should be prioritized.

But pure redistribution - from Social Security, medical cost transfer/egalization and all the other costly stuff bureocrats use to fix statistics/public opinion (over here A LOT of training programs for long-time unemployed people where they learn nothig useful, but are out of official unemployment statistics) is the beefy area almost every politician is afraid to touch.

Compare percentages in 5 or 6 year steps or graphically and I probably can stop arguing ;-)

And yes, I personally think US conception of healthy defense budget is over the top compared to other nations viewed from all angles:
per capita, percentage of ROI, percentage of worldwide defense spending.