Paul Ryan's vice presidential candidacy will certainly bring on the big-government-small-government debate.  The Republicans have forever said they stand for small government.  I have never actually heard the Democrats say they stand for big government but that's what the Republicans say the Democrats stand for.  Nobody to my knowledge has really defined what "big" and "small" governments are.   Relatively speaking, George W. Bush (a Republican) inherited a small government from Bill Clinton (a Democrat).  When Clinton left office he handed W a budget surplus of over $600 million.  Bush then presided "over the largest increase in the size of government since the Great Society,” according to Sen. John McCain (a Republican).  Bush then handed Obama a deficit of over one trillion dollars which most people have forgotten.  With budget samurai Ryan on the scene, we will now go through all the acrimonious partisan bickering about cutting this or that (Medicare, defense, Pell grants, education, research, etc,) and the big-small debate.  What I think most Americas long for is not a big government or a small one.  What we really want is a good one, something we haven't had for over ten years.