Expanding Government?

The healthcare debate is getting heated and I rejoice in the name of free speech. I was a little disturbed, however, when I saw a poster that had a quote from Thomas Jefferson about big government. Thomas Jefferson, as most of you know, was a proponent of a small and weak federal government and a hard advocate of states' rights. Reading the poster, I thought about Jefferson's administration and how he dealt with the federal government. Most Federalists were afraid that the government would become too small and weak. Surprisingly, Jefferson exercised federal power audaciously in office. He used it to justify the Louisiana Purchase and he tried to get a national education plan through Congress. I figured that there are different ways of expanding federal government.
I thought it was a little ironic when conservatives were complaining about the expanding federal government that would result from healthcare reform, and a public-option. I understand that they are conservatives, and they believe in a small and weak federal government, leaving most powers to the states (more power to them that they are allowed to believe what they do). However, when George W. Bush ran for president he, like Jefferson, promised to minimize the federal government, and instead he expanded it. The difference between Jefferson and Bush is how they expanded it.
Jefferson wanted to use the power of the government for the public good, and tried to get laws past that would benefit the public at large. Bush on the other hand, expanded the executive branch, created the Department of Homeland Security (not necessarily a bad thing), but invaded some of our basic rights and civil liberties in the name of unity. The USA PATRIOT Act allowed the government to censor phone calls, e-mails, etc., without a warrant and with little judicial oversight (check out the fourth amendment to the Constitution). He took on foreign affairs as a job only for his branch and made the "free press" (sarcasm) and the White House best buddies, when an independent and free press is guaranteed in the Constitution.
Both Jefferson and Bush tried to do what was best for the country, the latter by taking away some of our civil liberties and the former by trying to give the nation a good education plan. I think I will take Jefferson's way over Bush's. I think it is awkward that when Democrats want to do something positive such as ensuring that the poor and uninsured get insured, conservatives protest and worry about expanding government that might result from it, but when our basic liberties are invaded, and the government expands in the name of unity to take those liberties away, it is for the public good.