If you look at the federal budget, it is easy to see that the federal government is misallocating a significant amount or tax money to purposes that don't really benefit the average American. Interest on the national debt and military spending are the two big ones. There are probably also wasteful spending in most of the other programs as well.
Then there is the issue of too much inefficiency within existing insurance programs. American consumers are not getting a good value for the healthcare dollars that they do spend.
Lastly, I would say that the American education system is too expensive and too inefficient at training new medical staff.
It's easy to rip on US military spending, but it's actually not far out-of-line with other OECD countries. Considering the amount of war-mongering we do, I don't know how anyone expects it to be average or lower. For reference, it's about double the average country: https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0184_ally_defense_spendin...
Maybe if we could stop starting wars constantly, we could lower our military spending. But it doesn't look like that's the direction the voting population is moving toward.
So, what, you want to just stop paying interest on the national debt? That's going to have some consequences. It also has some injustice to it - the national debt is what we got for previous spending decisions. If that ties our hands in the present, well, past decisions do tend to have that effect.
Military spending is probably wasteful... until it's not. Those who have no military can still die by (someone else's) military. Having a military can be wasteful, but not having one can be very expensive.
> Lastly, I would say that the American education system is too expensive and too inefficient at training new medical staff.
Probably. But you could have stopped after "inefficient", and I would still have agreed. In fact, my impression (from a distance, I admit) is that medical education is more efficient than the rest of the educational system. (I agree that the expense is insane.)
While military spending is up for debate, you can't say that paying off the interest on the national debt isn't in the best interest of the American people if they still want to have a country.
The US cannot default on its debt payments that would be catastrophic to the US economy and to the world.
Then there is the issue of too much inefficiency within existing insurance programs. American consumers are not getting a good value for the healthcare dollars that they do spend.
Lastly, I would say that the American education system is too expensive and too inefficient at training new medical staff.