David Brooks and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin had a great debate at AEI today over the proper size and scope of the federal government. The debate originated with a WSJ op-ed that Ryan and AEI’s president, Arthur Brooks, wrote in September. Brooks responded to their argument in one of his NYT columns. Then the two sides agreed to meet and discuss their differences in front of a public audience. The conversation was as civil, reasoned, and insightful as you’d expect.

I watched the debate online. Basically, the difference is this: Ryan and Arthur Brooks say that the Democratic party is moving America toward a cradle-to-grave welfare state, and voters face a stark choice between a return to traditional values of limited government and personal responsibility or a debt-laden, low-growth future of managed decline. David Brooks says the choice is not that stark; that Obama and the Democrats are not socialists but traditional American liberals; and that there is a long tradition in America of limited but energetic government that conservatives and Republicans ought to embrace.