That's what they say now, to justify storing every iota of information on every form of communication and exchange of monies of every person, everywhere, who crosses the paths of their enormous spy cababilities, including citizens of other nations. Within that data load is the potential to persecute any American at any time in the future over fine points of law not even invented yet; because the storage facilities they are building intend to save every scrap of info about every person who uses any form of electronic communication whatsoever in perpetuity. You buy an hour with a hooker in 2013; in 2053 you are a Senator, and the system is hacked by a political opponent who, if he or she cannot unseat you outright, at least can sow disgrace into your 45-year-long marriage and humiliate your grandchildren.
The law of unintended consequences applies here. Birth control was sold to the public as an aid for married couples to space their children out and not have too many mouths to feed. But it led inexorably to what we now have: an epidemic of fatherless children, children of divorce, sexually and emotionally abused children, a holocaust of abortions, the destruction of a legally-supported culture of marriage and the natural family, and even the rise of the gay rights agenda, enabled by the foregoing destruction. Likewise with Social Security, Federal Income Tax, and a host of other programs "helped" by Big Government and the Supreme Court. They start out with laudable goals -- or so the public is led to believe. They end up costing everyone more money every year and entrapping more and more people in a web of deceit and inescapable annulment of their Constitutional rights and even fundamental human rights in a fog of regulation and government sleight of hand.
Not only that, but they can pick which businesses win or lose, they have access to marketing strategies, technological development.
This is the establishment of a permanent ruling class.