The betrayal of grassroots conservatives by the Capitol Hill Republican leadership is now complete.



Make no mistake about this – as long as Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are running the Republican show on Capitol Hill, the Republican brand is dead.



Boehner and McConnell led their respective Republican Conferences into the complete abandonment of any pretense that the Republican Party is the Party of fiscal conservatives as they caved-in to President Obama and conspired to pass a spending bill disguised as a “compromise” to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.



The bill Boehner and McConnell forced through Congress continues some of the worst policy of the Obama administration, such as subsidies for green energy boondoggles, while enshrining Obama’s class warfare tax policy in law.



What’s more, there is no real reduction in federal government spending in the bill – nor is there any commitment to reduce the deficit, or debt, which now stands at $16.4 trillion.



Establishment Republicans will claim that they have settled the tax issues and that now they will concentrate on spending reform when they deal with the debt ceiling.



Don’t believe it.



During the 2011 debt ceiling debate, DC's Republican insiders claimed they forced Obama to "cut" a trillion dollars in spending -- except the deficit actually grew over the past year. The "cuts" were completely phony.



In the next six weeks, there will be no real spending or entitlement reform because Obama and the Democrats know such reforms are not in their political interest.



The Democratic Party exists only to divide up the spoils the welfare state extorts from producers because that's what keeps them in power -- and they will keep spending until small government constitutional conservatives elect a majority in at least one House of Congress.



Boehner and McConnell could have made this a debate over spending, as it should have been from the beginning.



Instead, the two so-called “leaders” could not bring themselves to draw a line in the sand, say “NO” to more spending, actually stand and fight for conservative principles, and bring an end the unbridled growth of government that began in 2007.



No doubt, establishment Republicans will be spinning hard to their friends in the inside-the-Beltway media that this sellout has all kinds of yet-to-be-revealed benefits and that it is really a big "victory" for taxpayers.



That is a cynical lie.



Congress is addicted to spending more than it raises in taxes and taxpayers gain no victory as long as the debt and the government keep growing – and this bill grows the national debt by some $4 trillion.



Today, the winners are Capitol Hill’s establishment incumbents, who can and will keep spending until they are stopped by the votes of principled small government conservatives. Tomorrow, as we look to the 2014 Republican primary elections, the winners will be small government constitutional conservatives who now have a list of establishment Republicans to challenge and defeat in the coming primary elections.