[Passthepeas]

It has always perplexed me why there is a desire to deal with kind of thing at the federal level in the first place. States being able to decide these things for themselves is supposed to be what makes such a massive country stay functional.

[dmurray]

Human hubris. If you're a federal lawmaker, and you know you make great laws, why wouldn't you want all 50 states to get the benefit of your wise decision-making?

In so far as the federal government can unilaterally expand its reach, it will tend to do so, if just because being part of the federal government makes you more likely to think things should be regulated at the federal level. The authors of the Constitution knew this, and drafted it to safeguard the rights of state governments. But "states's rights" has been a dirty word for quite some time.

[kshacker]

More than hubris, the people paying you to write laws want to make sure they pay just one place and not 50 states.