Republicans Take Stock, Gird For Budget Battles

"House GOP gets nothing," is how Politico put it this morning.

The Wall Street Journal put it more gently, saying that Republicans paid an "extremely high" price for sparse return.

GOP leaders and rank and file are taking stock today after what is almost universally seen as a defeat for the GOP and a victory for President Obama and Democrats in the battles over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling.

Despite what the Wall Street Journal described as a "glum mood" among conservatives, the GOP is girding for the next round of budget battles, starting in January and February.

Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson speaks with Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who voted against yesterday's agreement.

Was It Worth It?

"There is a certain amount of disappointment, and this is significant. The president's position, is a position that he held all the way through it. But what we did do on the bright side of this, is illuminate a lot of things about Obamacare, that we hadn't been talking about to any significant degree previously. And we've identified, I would say, 20 to 30 good solid active conservatives, that are good messengers, they deliver a good message out to the national media. So I think we see new leaders emerging from that... but I don't want to miss-categorize this, there is no victory dance on my side."

"In the end, we didn't lose anything. I mean if we had just simply said 'Ok, Mr. President, you write this up the way you choose, and we will ratify it.' There's no policy loss there, there's marginal policy gains. But those gains don't make it worth the effort. If, if, we are stronger in the future, and if we clarify this issue of Obamacare, and if it unfolds in a fashion that the American public understands how bad it is, and pushes back, then I think there's a chance we could look at this and think it's a battle worth fighting."

On Market Reaction

"We never really got passed that center point, so now the American people are always going to wonder what Default means. There has been a lot of politics involved in this. And I never believed that getting through to point in the debt was a crisis for our credit, as much as it was perhaps a reaction, or an over-reaction, in the markets. And of course we didn't actually see that."