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.