After reading this column by George Will, I wanted to comment that I disagree with this as too general:

Furthermore, Americans are uninterested in the question of which level of government addresses those fears and that anxiety. ... it also represented a vestigial impulse to connect any federal action with a clear -- meaning constitutionally enumerated -- federal power.

That impulse is gone in a nation in which it seems quaint to suggest that some things are beyond the federal government's proper purview. Today's default position is: Washington should do it.

So the president must fashion policies that are responsive to this national consensus but that will not cause fissures in his conservative base.

I read enough bloggers and news articles to know that this need for federal intervention isn't strong with at least a portion of our society. Then I read this article:

Congress approved a $750 million, five-year plan aimed at building healthier marriages Wednesday as part of its deficit reduction bill.

The measure now goes to President Bush. It includes $100 million a year for marriage-related programs and $50 million a year for fatherhood programs. ...

Federal grants to local groups will fund programs such as communication and relationship skills training or community-wide activities for high schoolers. Bush has backed marriage-strengthening efforts, citing research that children from two-parent families are better off emotionally, socially and economically.

I was wrong. Not only is it the default position, enough people seem to believe it's the only position. Only in today's political atmosphere would a $150 million increase in expenditures for a non-federal task be considered deficit reduction. If I wasn't so right about everything, I'd quit caring altogether.