Late in 1998, the United States acquired a new regime of tobacco control engineered by the states' attorneys general. Nearly all of them had filed lawsuits against the major cigarette manufacturers, allegedly with the aim of recouping Medicaid costs attributable to smoking. Despite latent...

This essay compares early experience with implementing two strongly centralizing acts in the field of social welfare, one the Supplemental Security Income program in 1974 and the other Medicare Part D, the prescription drug program for the aged and disabled, in 2006. It contrasts the...