The federal government is trusted the most to handle issues such as defense and immigration, but there is a noticeable split on whether the federal government should take the lead on healthcare
Over the past century the scale and scope of federal power has expanded enormously as the range of services provided by or funded by the federal government has expanded. Most recently the Affordable Care Act reorganized America's healthcare system in every state, but in some spheres federal involvement is minimal. Aside from certain programs such as the interstate system or the FBI the federal government has minimal involvement in the day to day business of building roads and enforcing the law.
Research from YouGov shows that, on the whole, Americans are content to let the federal government handle truly national issues such as defense and immigration and leave more day-to-day issues, such as law enforcement or education, to state and local governments. Most Americans do, however, believe that the federal government, not state governments, should have the most control over environmental issues. 52% of Americans want the federal government to take the lead on pollution and 51% want it to be in charge of efforts to limit carbon emissions.
In general, however, Democrats tend to be more in favor of an empowered federal government than Republicans. Nowhere is this more clear than on the issue of healthcare. Overall Americans narrowly tend to believe that healthcare should be handled by the federal government (46%) and not by state or local governments (41%). Among Democrats, however, two-thirds (65%) say that the federal government should have the most control over healthcare, something only 29% of Republican agree with. Most Republicans (52%) want states to have the most influence over healthcare.
