Concerning Congress’ budget deal, National Review’s Yuval Levin puts it in perspective: “In their first budget after re-taking the majority … the House Republicans wanted discretionary spending to be $1.039 trillion in 2014 and $1.047 trillion in 2015. These budgets were of course described by the Democrats and the political press … as some reversion to humanity’s barbaric past. Yet this proposed deal with the Democrats would put discretionary spending at $1.012 trillion in 2014 and $1.014 trillion in 2015 – in both cases below that first House Republican budget. … The goal of conservatives in national politics can’t just be to have less of the same: the liberal welfare state at a slightly lower cost. That is basically what a sequester approach to the budget amounts to, after all – no reform of anything, just a small bit of across the board spending pressure. The goal, rather, should be to transform American government along conservative lines.” That’s taking the long view.