Perhaps I'm more cynical than most, but I don't think that having a CTO is increasing the size of government. Rather, they'd continue to make technology decisions (remember Ted "The Internet is a series of tubes" Stevens? Or Joe "Impetus for PGP" Biden?) yet be even more incompetent at it. Lack of expertise has never been a government roadblock before. I don't really like Obama's picks, but at least they have some technology background. I tend to believe that the government will try to legislate technology anyway; might as well focus on harm mitigation.
You're too young to remember ARPA - it is possible for government to make sane technology investments, but it does require taking them out of the hands of politicians.
