That's the wrong question too. The government is not a for-profit enterprise, most of its activities are meant to be services that can not be (or should not be)

That's the wrong question too. The government is not a for-profit enterprise, most of its activities are meant to be services that can not be (or should not be) profitably provided by the private sector. The military and benefits like Medicare and social security all fall into this category. The government needs to, over the long term, raise taxes to the point where it can cover these expenditures. However there is an economic benefit to keeping taxes low. The right question is do the short term benefits of low taxes justify the long term costs of higher debt. Further, where the government does make actual investments, those investments tend to be long term. A bridge that will stand for 100 years doesn't need to pay for itself in 10. It is entirely possible to spend money faster than you make it on profitable investments.