What terrorist in the world is now going to use his Verizon phone
to coordinate attacks on America? 95% of terrorists probably already figured their cell phones were being monitored and used "burn" phones. That means the the NSA and other intelligence agencies are probably spending tens of billions to catch a very, very small number of people.
It seems an inescapable fact that the NSA and others are NOT storing all electronic communication simply to keep us safe from terrorists. They are doing it because they can and someday they or some political leader will find a use for that information that has nothing to do with terrorism.
Also, it is quite grotesque that our government spends untold hundreds of billions of dollars to protect us from a danger that kills a relative handful of Americans each year while tens of thousands of Americans die early or suffer greatly without basic health care and tens of thousands of us are killed every year by gun violence. Historians in the future will no doubt marvel at the preventable death and suffering of our time.
In the end, this is still about the money. Billions of dollars to be made from fear and trillions to be protected for the 1%ers.
