Jim: Best Government Dollar Spent: My funny answer would be, “Jack Bauer’s salary,” and I could say some nice things about my friends who work for the U.S. State Department, but I will say, every penny that goes into the take-home pay of the men and women of our Armed Forces.

Variation/Runner-Up: The $36 million or so spent on two United States Air Force F-16C jets; the unknown amount spent on training the two pilots; the salaries and expenses of a joint task force in Iraq assigned with hunting al-Qaeda leaders; any financial aid or assistance that we give to Jordanian intelligence, $21,896 spent on a laser-guided GBU-12 and the roughly $21,000 spent on GPS-guided GBU-38, because they all added up to the violent death of a very evil man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on June 7 of this year. (I know my views will disappoint “YOU”, but I would nominate the pilot for Time’s “Man of the Year.”)

If there was a way to guarantee that my tax dollars would be spent on this, I’d voluntarily pay higher taxes.

Marshall: Yep. It’s every dollar that goes to pay the salaries of the men and women fighting to protect freedom in inhospitable climes far from home.

Runner-up: The dollars that go to fund cancer research at NIH. I know an NIH researcher, and he has told me a few stories. These guys are doing amazing work. Let’s send a few more million their way and a million or two less to Robert Maplethorpe. They might just cure cancer with it.

Cam: Well I’m not going to be unpatriotic bastard who says the best government dollar spent is on something other than our troops. I’ll leave that to Shempu.

Shempu: Screw them. Wheeee! See, I can be a lefty blogger! Love me, Markos! Love me and my pretty white tail!

Cam: Thanks for making my point, Shempu. Extra plankton in your dinner pail tonight. Runner up for best Government Dollar spent… the money we’re spending on keeping the Hubble Space Telescope up and running. Cutting edge technology and fresh wallpaper for my desktop on a regular basis. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Marshall: Ooooh! Love the Hubble answer. You’re absolutely right. Money well spent. Just goes to prove what most of Americans believe — there are thins government can do well — just not that many.