This was, it said, "a vision of a more engaged nation, one in which we take more responsibility for ourselves and our neighbours; communities working together, not depending on remote and impersonal bureaucracies".
As James Poterba, an M.I.T economist who served on the panel, delicately puts it, the Jeffersonian ideal of a civically engaged nation of landowners "wouldn't necessarily lead you to a policy that had the biggest benefits at the higher marginal tax rates".
It would have a better chance than current mechanisms of engaging the nations that have resisted nuclear constraints.
By engaging Muslim nations in perpetual war rather than helping them with infrastructure, we are fanning the flames of extremism, not defeating it.
Engaging more nations will require people with and without HIV encouraging their leaders to better fight HIV at home and abroad.
In the presidential campaign last year, and again this week, Mr. Bush warned against the arrogance of outsiders engaging in "nation-building" in the developing world.
But by attempting to use the budget for political advantage rather than engaging the nation honestly in a slow, shared transformation, the prime minister has done neither himself nor his country any favours.
However, in a war that was originally supposed to be about responding to a terrorist attack rather than engaging in nation-building, that sort of complaint confuses means with ends.
To date, "Fight Hunger Now" has fed over 37 million Americans by engaging a nation wide network of food banks.
If we don't come to our senses and get our deeply misguided priorities back in order, America engaging in nation building wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could easily join that ignominious list.
