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At first, I agreed with you only on research and infrastructure. Politicians of a certain stripe like to refer to these as "investments", but we never seem to see the return on those investments, do we?
Now, after reading your post carefully, I note you were talking about "squeezing" funds from research, education, and infrastructure. In this context, I think it's perfectly reasonable to include research as well.
I don't see how a fiscally responsible person could disagree with the idea that we must cut funding in ALL areas.
When you are running in the red, you don't cut everything willy-nilly. You don't cut your food budget with the same vigor that you cut your Cadillac budget do you? Do you cut 25% from everything, including rent? OF course not, that's just silly. Unfortunately, that's exactly what the GOP have proposed. They would sacrifice us all on some obscene altar all in the name of "no taxes". Conservatives have portrayed the budget debate as a massive spending deficit when, in reality, it's nothing of the sort. We do need sensible cutting of the budget, but to suggest that education, research, infrastructure, social spending and the like need to be cut while taxes for the top bracket also need to be slashed is downright ******ed. The fact that we've been coerced into this narrative shows how well the conservative community is able to control the debate. The GOP has lurched so far to the right that center-right positions are now "liberal." If Reagan was running today, he'd be a liberal Democrat, nevermind a Republican. Objectively, nearly every single policy action taken by Reagan would firmly place him to the left of Barack Obama today.
The reason we are in a such a big hole is because GWB's tax cutting + spending policies during the 00s plunged us into a massive deficit. His administration combined massive tax cuts with extraordinary spending and then left office before the full effects of the mess could be seen. Without the Bush tax cuts, there would be no "budget crisis" even with today's level of spending. And now, we have GOP candidates advocating for essentially a 0% tax on the top bracket. A return to Clinton-era taxes, which are still lower than the Reagan era, is unfathomable. That's how far right the debate has gotten. People who talk about cutting without addressing the tax side of the equation might as well be from Mars. There's no sense in talking to these people because they fundamentally don't understand the question at hand.
This is a very well sourced and written article about the current budget and tax issues. Give it a thorough read before making any conclusions.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-gop-became-the-party-of-the-rich-20111109