It is presented like this in popular culture. At least from my consumption of it. I am not even sure you can say US gov is less involved in economic affairs than the govs of the rest of the world. The taxpayer money has to go somewhere and in other countries it seems to go more towards infrastructure, social causes, healthcare. In US it goes where? Defense and business development? So they are probably more involved in economic affairs.

It's true that in europe lower taxes are not a topic. Nobody really expects to pay less taxes. They expect better services and guarantees.