JGC:

Your tax contributions are used to subsidize any of number of programs you don't participate in yourself, after all, from the maintenance of roadways you don't travel to social welfare programs for whose benefits you don't qualify fo or don't require. Yet for some reason you seem to be reacting as if this is the first time you've gfound yourself in this position.

As I've stated before, public infrastructure seems to be a valid government expenditure because there is no good way that I can think of to pay for most of it through "fee for service." And I certainly drive on the roads, so I get my share of benefits from it.

And social welfare to help the poor is in an entirely different class than a government program that pretends to be able to purchase for the middle class a consumer good they cannot afford on their own. If the average american cannot afford something, the government cannot afford to purchase it for all of them. Where do they think the money is going to come from?