What's a National Socialist?

I'm a little confused about what polices make national socialism and about the terminology of the name.  In the USA it seems that political terminology is different than in other parts of the world.  A lot of people here say that left vs right=statism vs anarchism.  I thought that left vs right=radical change/progressivism vs status quo/traditional values.  The fact that the title national socialism includes the word "socialism" and that it was very statist, a lot of people in the US say that the Nazis were left wing.  This confuses me because they hated communists and trade unions, and because Mussolini described fascism as being when state interests were the same as corporate interests.  So much so that fascism could also be called corporatism.  That desn't sound left wing to me.  It also seems that left wing movements tend to be communal such as communists believing that national borders should be disssolved while right wing movements tend to me nationalistic.  This also does not fit the Nazis being left wing.  So are national socialists left or right wing?  If right, then where does the "socialist" in national socialist come from?

>>2

Nazis disliked the Jews because they were the rich elite and easy scapegoats.  Much of the American left feels similarly about the richest in the US.  I see that connection, but the left in America does not hate communists and unions like te Nazis did.  So I have trouble seeing American socialists as national socialists.

>>3

Nazis obviously supported authoritarianism, but I'm still confused about where the stood in the left vs right axis according to modern views of left and right.  I've heard people say the Nazis were authoritarian right, but they still called themselves "socialists".  Does a national socialist want competition or do they want equality for everyone within the group that supports them?

>>4

So national socialists support high taxation for a powerful military, scientific research, and public services, but wants to keep that public money within their own country and not flowing into the hands of foreigners?  If thats correct then I don't think there's anything like nationl socialists in the US. Republicans want low taxes, low regulation, and have a variety of views on interventionism ranging from militarism to isolationism.  And Democrats want higher taxes for public programs and lots of regulations, but want to cut back on military spending.  They are also very weak on illegal immigration which I don't find very nationalistic. I guess we have nationalists and socialists, but no national socialists.

I'm curious to see what other people think about this since people are often called "fascist" and "communist" and compared to Nazis in less than freindly political debates. But I think these are used inappropriately lots of the time.