The Budget Deal, or Paul Ryan Talks like a Real Conservative

After three years of grandstanding, government by crisis, and nonsensical carp about socialism, Paul Ryan introduced the new budget deal by talking like an actual conservative:

In divided government, you don't always get what you want. We eliminate waste. We stop sending checks to criminals. We cut corporate welfare. We start making real changes to these autopilot programs that are the real drivers of our debt. . . .  As a conservative, I deal with the situation as it exists. I deal with the way things are, not the way I may want them to be. I'm not going to go a mile in the direction I want to go, but I'll take a few steps.

Now wasn't that a pleasant change? No fuming about how the deficit is going to bring about the end of civilization, no threats to shut down anything, just tough negotiating and then a candid admission that in America right now conservatives can't have their way in everything.

I'm not very happy with the budget, either, since I think it is silly to worry about the deficit when unemployment has been high for five years and we can borrow money for a real rate of less than 1 percent. But better a deal like this that at least restores a little of the sequester cut than another round of manic doom-mongering and Congressional malpractice.