Of course, this is exactly what Al Gore is trying to do. And apparently, a lot of Americans, especially women, like the idea, if recent polls are any indicator. Government's role in the daily lives of most Americans has expanded dramatically since the 1960s. Before the mid '60s, most middle class Americans received few benefits, directly or indirectly, from the federal government. Increasingly, Americans have come to expect Uncle Sam to take care of them and their families.
Some benefits come directly in the form of government checks.
Others come in the form of services that are paid for or subsidized by federal dollars. Still others come as tax credits, or Gore's favorite, 'targeted tax cuts,' which are really just another way for the government to tell you how to spend your own money by rewarding you if you do it on things the government approves of. Not the government, that's for sure, since the government has no money of its own. The poor don't, by and large. And a few of the very rich don't, either.