Well, the government is no longer in shutdown, and the chance of defaulting has decreased. Unfortunately, this same fight will more than likely occur when those deadlines arise again. The government will only run until mid-January. As for the debt limit, it has essentially disappeared until Feb. 7, meaning the Treasury can spend what they need until that deadline. After 16 days of being shut down, neither side has really gained anything.

Firstly, this shutdown happened because the GOP decided to stand up for what they believe and Democrats decided to wait 16 days past a deadline to negotiate. Although Republicans probably knew they wouldn’t win and it has caused countless divisions to be seen in the public eye, it was bound to blow up sooner or later. The Tea Party gained a lot of seats in the last two elections, and they will have a lot of influence because of it. Unfortunately, there are other Republicans who aren’t as conservative who will disagree with their agenda, which will lead to more public divisions.  All I can ask is that they use this as a time to regroup and decide which side will have more control and pick their battles more scrupulously.

As for the debt limit, so many things could go wrong. The same deal was struck earlier this year to not specify an amount that the Treasury could spend. Instead, they are allowed to spend what is necessary unless Congress disapproves and passes legislation to out-rule it. The Treasury is under President Obama, so he in turn would veto the bill, and then two-thirds of Congress would have to overrule his decision. We all know that would not happen. Whatever amount the Treasury has spent by Feb. 7 will be considered when making the new limit. Also, don’t be fooled about the lessened chance of defaulting on our debts. It is still possible under this legislation, and it is also still possible that our credit rating could be lowered.

Either way, more legislation will be needed in less than three months over the same issues. Congress is supposed to pass a budget once a year, but since they can’t do that, these crises happen almost twice a year. It is time to learn from their mistakes and actions, and both sides need to decide if they want to continue going through these dilemmas or actually fix the problems.