States of Confusion

There are a couple of stories in the news over the last couple of days that illustrate - to me, anyway - why a state/federal system just don't work too good.
The first one is in America, where in that hotbed of loony left liberalism - Florida - the court system has decided that it is OK to remove the feeding tube from Terri Schiavo, essentially starving her to death. Now the boss of the world United States, who is the brother of the boss of Florida, has said "Nuh-uh! Like, no way dude, not while I'm on patrol!" and has got his flunkies to push a bill through congress which would allow the Federal judiciary system to get involved in the case, presumably because he believes the Feds are more conservative/scared of the Right To Lifers.
Meanwhile, here in Orstraylyer, the Federal attorney - general has decided that large corporations should be allowed to sue for slander, which is different to what the state attorneys - general think. So, in the spirit of compromise, Razor Ruddock has set a deadline for the states to change their laws to suit him or he will write a federal law.
Which makes me wonder why we have states. Granted 'State Of Origin' has more of a ring to it than 'General Area Of Origin', but it doesn't sound that good that we should pay an extra shitload of shiny bums a shitload of dollars to render the whole system of government even more inefficient than it otherwise would be. Government will never be efficient no matter what system is in place - look at defence, where no-one but the Feds are involved, or the local council, where no-one but... you get the point. At least if we fucked the States off, the Feds would have no-one to blame when people aren't happy about schools/health/infrastrucure/ tax burdens etc.
It just so happens that in both of these cases I am on the state's side, although the Schiavo case is not as clear-cut as it would appear. Her family seem a bit histrionic in their accusations about her husband and their is little doubt that they are extraordinarily selfish in their desires but they do have a valid claim as Terri's blood to be involved in any decision about her future. I think they are delusional in both their claims about Mr. Schiavo and their opinion on Terri's state of consciousness (Daffodils react to light, too, it doesn't make them cognizant).Whether it would be more of a tragedy if they were successful is debatable. Every court in Florida disagreed with them, however and that's where the matter should have ended. Either you have a states based system of government or you don't.
As for corporate slander, no doubt the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be pining for the same simple rights that are granted to Joe Everybody, yearning to be free, like the downtrodden everywhere. It would never occur to them, or any of their members that they could make vexatious claims against Joe Everybody and then keep those claims tied up in court so long that Joe Everybody is a broke and broken man. That just isn't the corporate way to use your strengths to gain whatever advantage you can. Once again, you either have a states based system or you don't.
These two cases don't do anything to make my position easier to justify, but I'm sticking to it.