Hence the USDA spends a lot more time monitoring e coli levels in the NATIONAL beef supply than regulating where LOCAL ranchers can graze their cattle. The latter is a big concern in places like TX and MT, but less so in places like NJ and OR, so it would be wasteful to devote huge amounts of national resources to what is a minor issue in most states. Often, local means are more than adquate to the needs of local citizens, in which case there is no justification for supplementing them with the means of non-local residents. Roland cites the example of police and fire protection, which can usually be handled locally with minimal difficulty--yet when riots reach a level local police cannot handle them, additional law enforcement is provided by the states; if it gets bad enough we send in the National Guard. When a fire breaks out the local fire department usually puts it out with local water, not because people in another state or unwilling or unobligated to provide the water, but because getting it from distant locations instead of local ones would cost more to ship and allow the fire to burn longer during shipping--but when wildfires blanket a state and there simply is not enough manpower or local water locally, water and firefighters being arriving from more distant areas.

State government has a valid and vital role, but it does not include providing necessary federal government simply because some dislike the feds.