Discuss the reasons why there has been an effort to shift power among the federal and state governments in recent years.

For the most part, these efforts have come about because
both levels of government want to have more power and neither level of government
particularly wants to pay for the things that it does.  So the levels try to take more
power while simultaneously trying to push the costs on to the other level of
government.

For example, Pres. Bush wanted the federal
government to have a great deal more power over education.  This is why he pushed
Congress to pass the No Child Left Behind law instead of leaving it to the states to
pass such laws.  This is a case of one level trying to take more
power.

At the same time, you have the states and the
federal government fighting over who should have to pay how much of the costs of things
like Medicare.  In this case, both sides are trying to get the other to pay
more.

So money and power are the main reasons why the two
sides have been trying to shift power from side to side.