What do you feel the role of government should be?

Many of the partisan debates like the budget seem to boil down to whether and to what extent the government should be involved in certain things.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights contains phrases such as ”...supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.” and some feel that that means that government is responsible for helping those who cannot help themselves (the poor, unemployed, disabled, elderly…).

Some hardcore Conservatives feel that governments role is merely to sign the paychecks of the military and fix potholes on the interstate. They can’t tax the citizenry, regulate business, or anything like that; they are supposed to just sit down and shut up.

Most people either somewhere in between and sometimes have their own twists, and I would like to hear your thoughts and opinions.