A question that has also occurred to me

Following US shenanigans as I do, I have seen the term 'big government' pop up a fair bit, usually out of the shit-spewing gobs of the conservatives - 'Obama is big government' they say 'Americans don't want Obama's big government'. Being Australian, and having inherited the very English tradition of a welfare system - unemployment benefits, cheap, subsidised healthcare etc, I'm a bit bewildered by what these wife-cheating, justice-hating, tax-dodging cretins are blathering on about.

Fortunately America's Progressive Voice shared a note from 'Karen' of Take Back America explaining this peculiar conservative bugbear called 'big government'. See after the jump.

America's Progressive Voice via Take Back America
‎"I have to ask what is "big government?"
I hear many conservatives toss around that ludicrous little sound bite as if it has any real relevance.
And I wonder, what do they mean by that, especially when considering how intrusive conservative policies are into the lives of individuals; such as laws prohibiting abortion, gay marriage, and recreational drug use for certain drugs.
Conservatives tend to abhor nearly all regulations of business, yet have no qualms dictating personal morality to actual living, breathing people.
God forbid that we should all have access to health care, but lets invade sovereign nations and give trillions of dollars in subsidies to billionaires.

There's a serious flaw in the line of reasoning that typically involves the anti-big government rhetoric.
You see, as per a literal reading of the Constitution (see Article 1 section 8), Congress has been endowed with the responsibility of levying taxes to provide for the General Welfare of the public; in other words, part of their job is to provide public programs that help the people.
Such programs include school (and I know most of you went to public school), roads, health care, environmental protection, and other such services that enable them to fulfill their duty to provide for the general welfare of the people.

Please explain to me how social programs equate with "big government," yet dictating what individuals can and cannot do with their own bodies and whom they can and cannot marry does not?
What is the point to having any government at all if it cannot ensure that its citizenry is educated, healthy, and well fed?
What good is government if it cannot protect us from the excesses of business, which history has proven will do anything for profit from exploiting people to polluting the planet, and to ensure that our air is breathable and our water drinkable?" - Karen