Remember when

Holy cow. I've been griping and griping about the federal government, and it turns out I should be grateful to it for doing states such a big favor:

President Obama's economic stimulus package, more formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, offers state governments a number of unprecedented opportunities, but none more important than in the area of health care.

The stimulus package lays the groundwork to transform and elevate the nation's health care system through the use of cutting-edge health information technology and infrastructure.

Aren't we lucky to have those unprecedented opportunities out here in the states?

At one time, states had the dominant role -- that was the central feature of federalism. You remember "federalism" -- it was designated as our system of government in the Constitution. You remember the "Constitution" -- that's the founding document that limits the federal government to specific, enumerated powers and reserves all other powers, whether spelled out or not, to the states and the people. You remember "the people." This used to be their country.