Kafir,

Protectionism is unlikely to help and more likely to hurt. It is going to take time to adjust to a global market with extremely cheap labor--especially with a nation like China that doesn't play by the international rules.

To stay ahead, we have to be leading in fields. Unfortunately, U.S. R&D investment is shrinking rather than growing, and has been for years. Cutting R&D takes a long time to show its effect. In business it allows a company to reap more profits for a few years in a mature market. However, you can't restart R&D overnight, so once it is gone it isn't coming back for years, even if you start throwing money at the problem.

I have not minded paying my taxes. Percentage wise they are low for a developed nation, and there is plenty of infrastructure and services out there which I benefit from. As long as taxes are not exorbitant and are used to keep my country strong and developing, I'm satisfied. I do think it is ridiculous to pay $180 billion dollars extra (and growing) to service debt... It's like running a balance on credit cards rather than paying them down.