Those are all the really positive uses for tax money and the ones I can easily support (except perhaps for part of the gov't employee salaries part), but the fact is that in the US they tax the hell out of people.  We pay federal tax, state tax (most states), sales tax, car tax, property tax, and probably other taxes that aren't coming into my addled brain right now, AND a lot of tax money is straight up wasted. 

I think government should be far more frugal than it is with spending taxpayers' money, and I think people should pay less overall.  I'm not into politics by any means, but I think government has gotten too big and costs too much--and they have no problem printing endless dollars, either.  It's crazy.