I am looking to get into captain america (and the avengers as well) but when I search for specifics,  I get a very long list of issues and don't know where to start. What would you recommend??

If you want a very basic place to start you could get the Marvel Essentials: Captain America.  Volume 1 will collect a lot of early issues of Captain America and you can get a good idea of who he is and what he's about.  
You could even check out the Captain America page on this site and then pick up Captain America # 1 that comes out in a few months with Steve Rogers as Captain America again. 

Captain America #1 comes out June 29th so for now I recommend reading what's happening through the fourms on here and reading both Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers profiles. 
Link to marvel release of Captain America #1 :
http://marvel.com/comic_books/issue/34980/captain_america_rebirth_2010_1

Captain America #1 comes out June 29th so for now I recommend reading what's happening through the fourms on here and reading both Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers profiles. 
Link to marvel release of Captain America #1 :
http://marvel.com/comic_books/issue/34980/captain_america_rebirth_2010_1

My advice is a bit more practical: 
 
Step 1:  Watch Disney XD's Avengers cartoon.  You can find it online and in stores now.  They have a 1 ep  "Captain America" origin, and do a pretty good job of introducing all of the characters. 
 
Step 2:  Pick a Universe.  Marvel's main continuity (616) is full of obscure things and 600+ numbered comics.  But it's also pretty darned good.  Ultimates is less good overall, but tells some pretty nice stories.  You can mix + Match, but it's easier to just pick a side. 
 
Step 3:  Pick up a trade of a stand alone series.  Ultimate CA, CA Reborn, or several other limited series trades.  These are generally stand-alone stories and you don't need to know much of anything going in. 
 
After you decide "OMG, Captain America is the coolest!", you can bother picking up things like "the essential captain america"/etc. 
 
Final thought:  Even if you don't like any particular CA comic you find; still tune in for the movie.  Like Ironman, it will probably distill the "best" of the early captain america into what is a generally enjoyable story.  Also, don't be afraid to ask questions like "Which trades are must have?".   I can't answer that question, but others will.

I suggest Cable/Deadpool - one of my favorite X-books. 
 
After that, I suggest getting into the "new" X-Force and Uncanny X-Force books - the former should be in trades, the latter will be soon (Not Cable's X-Force, Wolverine's... it's generally been solidly written, even if they go into "cannon shock" sometimes - Necroshia mainly). 
 
Spiderman... do yourself a favor and pick up everything since "One More Day".  It's a fun book, does interesting things, and if you ignore  "One Moment in Time" it should be nonstop fun.  
 
The recent Hickman run on Fantastic Four has also been outstanding... but it's got a lot of history, so probably not the best place to start.
 
Hulk... Pick up WAR WOLRD HULK and everything afterwards.  It is that good.
 
Thor has had some nice stuff recently... but I can't tell you what to get and what not to get.  
 
Avengerswise... I'd say pick of Mighty Avengers... and New Avengers... and Dark Avengers.  But the first two have several volumes, and go "crossover" several times, so you'd probably want to look up "Comic book crossovers" on a wiki before delving into them.
 
As for stand-alone stories, I suggest you pick up OLD MAN LOGAN (wolverine alternate future story).  It is a fun book.  
 
Recap:  If you're short on funds, I suggest picking up Old man Logan, then War World Hulk (should be several trades in this storyline), and progressing forward. 
Alternative to WWH:  There's a DTV DVD animated movie of this... but it is not as good as the comic.  It comes close at times, but it is nowhere near as good.