After all the bickering and grandstanding, the billions lost and trust squandered, it was much ado about nothing

By Holly Yan, Tom Cohen and Greg Botelho

The partial government shutdown’s finally over. The debt ceiling debacle has been averted. Obamacare remains virtually unscathed.

The hardline House Republicans, whose opposition to the President’s signature healthcare law set this all in motion, got pretty much zip — except maybe their reputations marred.

“To say we as Republicans left a lot on the table would be one of the biggest understatements in American political history,”Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tweeted.

But it’s all temporary — the cliched kicking of the can. In a few months, Congress will come back to fight the same battles.

For now, though, thousands of furloughed federal workers will return to work Thursday, the U.S. can pay its bills, and an economic superpower can again boast a functioning government.

Pundits will conduct a post-mortem of the bitter stalemate. And the public will look ahead to what’s next.

Last-minute save

Everything came together Wednesday on a frenzied night of deadline deals. Lawmakers toiled through the night, coming precariously close to hitting the midnight debt ceiling deadline.

The Senate brokered a bill to end the 16-day-long shutdown and raise the debt limit. The GOP-led House passed it. And early Thursday morning, President Barack Obama signed it into law.

But it wasn’t Republicans who made it happen; a majority of that party’s caucus actually voted against the measure, which only passed because of overwhelming Democratic support.

Had Congress not approved a debt limit increase, the government would have started running out of money to pay its bills. Social Security checks and veterans’ benefits could have stopped. The markets could have gone into a tailspin.

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