Regardless of the final outcome of the great debt ceiling crisis, history will honor the achievement of Speaker John Boehner and his Republican leadership team. Against tremendous odds and in the face of media derision, they advanced the cause of fiscal sanity without abandoning core principles: there will be no tax rate increases and-for the first time-all factions in Washington agree that spending must be slashed and entitlement programs restructured.

In the first two years of the Obama administration, the big question in Congress was how much more we would spend. Now, the big question is how much more we must cut. The Republicans in the House of Representatives, and the dedicated conservative activists who sent them there, have changed the whole focus of our national debate and that in itself stands as an historic achievement.