The US government is actually on the smaller end of things in comparison with to other countries. Sure places like India and Afghanistan have smaller governments but they also have a lot of dysfunction.

Country Government Spending (% of GDP)

France 57.0%

Finland 55.6%

Italy 53.8%

Belgium 53.3%

Austria 52.7%

Greece 50.5%

Germany 48.4%

Spain 45.4%

United Kingdom 44.5%

United States 34.4%

Australia 26.8%

Ireland 22.7%

India 14.9%

Source: Trading Economics, Government Spending to GDP by Country