The House whipped through its approval with virtually no comment. There is nothing more efficient than a sullen majority. Democrats said a few lukewarm words about the agreement. “It does have my support as a means to an end,” said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Good work in repressing the temptation to gloat, House Democrats!

It was the outcome Tea Party conservatives had theoretically feared — Democrats and moderates ascendant. But, by the end, most of them seemed sort of grateful for a way out. The Republican caucus gave Speaker John Boehner a standing ovation, which really did suggest that he’d been exceptionally canny in the way he played his cards. And it only required 16 days of government shutdown to put him on firm political footing.

About the plan: Everything goes back to normal and all the fights get postponed until early next year. Meanwhile, a House-Senate conference committee will try to agree on a budget. This is basically the same House-Senate conference committee that the Senate Democrats have tried to create nearly two dozen times over the past seven months. The Republicans resisted, arguing that it all might be a trick to raise the debt ceiling. Which is now being raised. So it’s fair, if you have the urge, to say that this whole ordeal has been for nothing whatsoever.

Any further consideration of what is going to happen with Congress and budgets would require bringing up the sequester issue. Sequester is incredibly important, but, really, we’ve been through a lot lately and I believe a rest is in order.

Instead, discuss the following: Would you say that Congress is more like the movie “Gravity” (government employees helplessly adrift in space) or the movie “Captain Phillips” (hero trapped in small, sweaty place with unstable people waving guns)?

I am going for “Captain Phillips,” which has Tom Hanks stuck in the end in a lifeboat-capsule with three Somali pirates: the navigator who does not know how to steer, the strongman who keeps shrieking and threatening everybody, and a nice kid who is in way over his head.

Obviously, we the people get the Tom Hanks role. Everybody likes Tom Hanks. I will allow you to attach Congressional identities to each pirate. Feel free to bring up Ted Cruz.