That's objectively not true. Your comparison doesn't work.
Indeed, it does correlate .
The Federal Government is constitutionally mandated on what it can and cannot do.
Of course, it routinely oversteps it boundaries, and it fails every time it does so.
Every time.
Whether it be social reforms like Obamacare and welfare, or Science endeavors, it will become a large money pit, it will not go away, and the solution will always be to throw more money at it.
To say "They are spending our money, so they should spend it on something I want", is not a conservative argument.
You are not talking about a government too big, but that a big government that subsidizes what you want and taxes/penalizes that which you do not.