We need to get back to basics.  Government should pick up the trash and patch the potholes.

1) National defense is a basic duty of government.  It is obvious our armed forces are over-extended.  We need 100,000 more soldiers in the Army and Marine Corps.

2) Fighting crime is a basic duty of government.  We should increase the budget of the FBI and forensic labs.  The FBI has new anti-terrorism duties, but its budget has not increased.  We need more DNA testing to link criminals to different crimes and to exonerate innocent prisoners.

3) The judiciary was established by Article III of the Constitution.  Judges’ pay has not increased with inflation.  We need to increase the pay of federal judges to maintain the quality of justice.

4) The Patent Office was established by Article I, section 8 of the Constitution.  The Patent Office is overwhelmed with a 2 year backlog of patent applications.  We need to:
- reform production quotas of patent examiners and open regional offices in locales with lower costs of living than Washington , D.C.
- impose user fees.  Like passports, if an applicant wants faster processing, she pays more.
- establish bonus fund for patent examiners to improve the quality of patents.  For each year a patent is not invalidated (up to, say, 5 years), the patent examiner gets a bonus each year.
- reduce frivolous lawsuits by amending the Federal Rules of Procedure to include an offer of judgment.  If a litigant offers a settlement, the other litigant rejects it and does not recover more than the offer, then the rejecting party must pay the legal expenses of the offering party.

5) We must update infrastructure.  We need to:
- repair bridges and roads.  Fund with gasoline tax.  Price of gasoline may increase but it does not decrease.  If actual cost of gasoline decreases, taxes increase to keep price stable.  High gasoline prices also discourage consumption.
- update the air traffic control system with GPS technology.  Sign on at www.smartskies.org.  However, passengers must pay at least half of the user fees necessary to renovate the system.
- reduce traffic.  Use congestion pricing; if you want to drive during rush hour, you pay a toll.  Expand mass transit and reduce its cost for passengers.  Fund with gasoline tax.  This would reduce regressive effect of gasoline tax.  
- funnel gasoline tax funds into trust at a public corporation.  This would prevent politicians from spending the money for non-transportation uses.
- expand public-private infrastructure partnerships.