Okay LJ, well I think I can address that point by point.
The first thing that needs to be understood is that the government doesn't have any "money". ALL money in possession of the gov't and spent by gov't, has been TAKEN from the private citizens labors.
Government has no methods to be productive. Government is ENTIRELY PARASITIC. This is because of the previously stated basic operating premise of gov't.
So, this needs to be understood, or all follow-on discussions are founded on misunderstanding.
If you can point me to anything that is productive about gov't, where it isn't taking the people's money and spending it with somebody else, I'll defer.
Nobody can, so I'm not worried about deferring.
Government gets ALL its money from the people. What it doesn't take directly, it borrows and hangs the debt on the people.
So, now that we have that understood, we can proceed.
The next thing is "jobs". Government doesn't create any jobs. Jobs are productive enterprises. All "government jobs" are parasitic, because they are paid by parasitic funds taken from the people. No "wealth" is created by any gov't job. It cannot contribute to the economy. All it can do is shuffle other people's money around. and decide who loses and who gets. It re-distributes, while carving off a good percentage for "administrative costs" that could have been much better spent with more efficiency and buying power, if the administrative costs(waste) weren't there..
Any "job" created by this method actually causes loss of real jobs in the private sector, because it competes with(or eliminates) private sector industry with money that doesn't belong to them, and can operate at a loss that it makes up with more forced taxation if necessary.
All "gov't jobs" are a drain on the economy. Not assets.
People may feel that those things are worth paying for, but they are not "productive" in the economic sense of the word. They are purely parasitic in the economic sense of the word.
Once it is understood that all these "gov't spending" and "spin-off jobs" related to government spending is actually confiscated individuals' money, and directed to gov't contractors via budgetary allotments, then we can see how gov't controls people and the economy, to be less productive than it would be in free market competitive conditions. And how the "political footballs" and lobbyists occur, to try to "steer" where all the people's stolen money is going to be directed. Winners and losers.
And the contractors and "winners" of this gov't largesse, are generally the major corporations which liberals typically say they dislike, and it is actually the gov't who is keeping these large corporations in "fat city" by awarding huge contracts which are poorly monitored and laden with massive amounts of overpayment, waste, fraud, and abuse.
The other programs may be operated by gov't agencies and bureaucracies, all parasitic, and are also rife with poor oversight, and laden with waste, fraud, and abuse.
As I pointed out in a previous post about the healthcare matter, these are the same reasons why it is imperative to restore a somewhat reasonable facsimile of the free market, where people can contract directly with the goods/services providers and make their own deals to purchase what they want at prices they agree to. And settle on an agreed-upon deal voluntarily.
The transaction agreement between seller and buyer is the foundation of a "good deal". Any 3rd Party taking the money from somebody and spending it for him, adds waste in terms of administrative layers at the very least, and suffers from the FACT that he doesn't care as much about YOUR money, as he does HIS money. YOU are the best steward of your own money. Not somebody else. If you want "good deals" for "good services" then you need to make that deal yourself, and be in agreement with the seller on what you want provided for the price.
As for "salaries" being paid by parasitic gov't funds, I think I already addressed that.
However, I think I've established now that all services provided by gov't, which are currently considered "necessary" by some, are able to be privately provided by purchasing power of people's money that isn't taken from them by taxation. The same amount of money is available to be spent, without gov't in the picture, because gov't gets the money from the people in the first place.
The concept that somehow there is "gov't money" that isn't stolen from the people is patently false. ALL that money is stolen. So, if gov't was kicked out of those sectors, the same, or more money would still be available to pay people for their work, maybe even the same kind of work, except $Trillions of it wouldn't be wasted by parasitic levels of useless gov't bureaucracy.
The faceless bureaucrats who live off this waste, would need to get new jobs.
Perhaps they might take some college level courses on re-training themselves about how to be productive.
Farm prices.
Farm prices are subsidized in many cases. This is waste.
As is the situation with ALL commodities, farm produce will fluctuate with market demand, and production will adjust, just like all commodities do.
We don't need to pay Ted Turner millions of dollars a year to have the largest buffalo ranch in the known universe.
Regarding "inflation".
There is one factor, and one factor only, in "inflation".
That factor is the size of the money supply.
It is decided by the Federal Reserve.
There are no other "market factors" The other "market factors" are known as "supply and demand", and if certain goods spike in price periodically, they also come down later, according to the demand curve. The only reason prices go up because of "inflation" is because of the increase in monetary supply eroding purchasing power of the currency. There is no other factor, regardless of what the propaganda may say. Everything else is market forces which fluctuate by supply and demand.
Federal Reserve monetary policy is 100% responsible for the loss of purchasing power of the currency thru inflation. ALL fiat currencies of this nature fail. That's where we're headed.
Interestingly, for the first 125 years of the US history, where sound money of gold and silver was used, there was NO inflation. The ONLY inflation was from the borrowing used for "Greenbacks" during the Civil War, which was correspondingly deflated back to normal during the deflation of the Reconstruction Period.
There are no "extenuating circumstances" when the facts are known.
But, there are "excuses". And those excuses are manufactured by those who wish to keep the oppressive hand of gov't on the people, so that they may be controlled and kept down, so that the parasites in gov't may more easily control them and profit from their positions, and manipulate the population and economy for their preferred purposes.
It is precisely because gov't is parasitic and heavy-handed, that it's powers were intended to be few, and strictly limited in scope.
And it is directly correlated to this massive increase in scope of gov't, beyond its intended role, which can be attributed to the problems we face today.
More gov't isn't the cure. It's the poison.
While a small amount may be tolerated, those limits must be observed, or death results.