First of all, and I specified this, I was talking about per-capita GDP.
Secondly, you didn't address education or unemployment.
Thirdly I wasn't talking about military force at all, but using the military to settle disagreements is hardly a good idea.
Fourthly, we do not control the oceans. While it's true that our Navy is badass, there's a thing called international waters.

All that blue stuff is water that no country owns or controls.
Finally, government spending or not, without an infrastructure America cannot function, period. A contiguous, efficient infrastructure is key to trade and the moving of goods aka an economy. If it takes more I35W collapses for America as a whole to realize that our infrastructure to go down the tubes, than fine. A unacceptably high percentage of our bridges and highways are out of shape and outdated.