That's one small baby step for mankind; one giant leap for man.

So they didn't shut down the government Friday night. It was hard to believe, but the $39 billion cut finally agreed to was the biggest budget cut in history. Yet it's peanuts. Some criticize the Republicans for not pushing even harder. Others are happy the government wasn't shut down and that the Republicans were able to get a lot on the deal even though they pushed defunding Planned Parenthood, NPR, the EPA and Obamacare onto a future vote in the Senate. In the grand picture of things (the pending debt ceiling battle and the Paul Ryan plan), Friday was a baby step for the future of this country, but it was a step.

It was a giant leap for a party that has talked a good game on cutting budgets and deficits but which has never delivered on the talk until prodded by the Tea Party. It's good for the Tea Party. Yes, they won't get everything they want, but do we all? They can keep pushing us in the right direction. Those who pursue the standard sometimes fall short; but it's that eye on the ball, the standard, that always keeps everyone working at it.

It was a small baby step for mankind. The debt ceiling and the Paul Ryan plan are coming. Consider what happened Friday as a light workout - spring training if you will. Speaker John Boehner has made it a point to say that the debt ceiling won't be raised without huge concessions by the Democrats. Those concessions better be huge. They better defund everything they failed to defund in Friday's round. They need to do the Paul Ryan plan. The Democrats will not make a deal like that. If they do, it better be a pretty damn good deal that encompasses everything the Tea Party has been asking for on spending. Barring a giveaway of those proportions by the Democrats, The GOP will need to stand firm on the debt ceiling.

2012 is coming. We will need a president with a steel spine to enact everything that we work toward from now forward. There will be internal squabbles and disappointments, vetoes and veto threats from the current president and much hair pulling from the public who keep saying "just cut the damn thing, will ya."

Let's get it rolling now so that it's in motion going into 2012.

There's a Senate that has to flip this election. Then there's the White House. We need a leader that going to be carry these budget cuts and entitlement reforms the whole way through.