With angry members from the progressive caucus in Congress announcing their vast disappointment with the Debt Limit compromise, we can quickly surmise who got the better of whom in the long negotiation just concluded. 
 
Conservatives who are realists are cheering the breaking of the Democratic stranglehold that until this deal obliged Congress to spend an additional dollar on boondoggles for every new dollar spent on defense. Breaking this approach for good is the best part of the new deal. 
 
The next best thing is that there is not one line of tax hikes or “revenue enhancements” in the whole thing. Congrats to Speaker McCarthy for this critical win for spending discipline.
 
Some conservatives are angry that the GOP did not get everything that all of the 222 members of the caucus wanted. Realists know that was never going to happen, not with only one-half of the Congress under very narrow Republican control. 
 
But to make progress means winning in November of 2024, and this deal puts the GOP on the road to that crucial next step.