By averting a government shutdown, Democrats and more moderate Republicans ensured bigger government, further indebtedness, a greater percentage of the federal budget allocated toward paying interest, and inflation worse than otherwise.
Given that the government never really shuts down — only nonessential personnel and programs cease — during a government shutdown, conservatives who believe in smaller government win the larger war of shrinking government, at the assumed price of losing a public relations battle, when they make further borrowing conditional on greater cuts.
This simple solution requires not real political skill but instead an amount of will that few conservatives on the hill possess. They seem to really dislike people saying mean things about them into microphones.
Conservatives, i.e., people who believe in limited government, lost over the weekend.
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