I completely agree, my wording was perhaps ambiguous. What I meant was that the average person doesn't perceive it as such, IOW they don't see the benefits of

I completely agree, my wording was perhaps ambiguous. What I meant was that the average person doesn't perceive it as such, IOW they don't see the benefits of the Federal government, which is not to say that there are no benefits for the average person. This is probably because there is a lack of publicity about how these types of programs improve people's daily lives. Instead we get a lot of politicians talking about how wasteful these are, or how it's part of the nanny state, or stifling growth by taxes. And the media doesn't generally oppose this viewpoint... As a example, I remember during the Democrat debate in Miami where Sanders was not asked how his healthcare would help people, but whether it would raise taxes.