Benjy Sarlin: “Interviews with lawmakers, pundits, and activists across a wide ideological in the final hours of a shutdown Wednesday paint a pessimistic picture of what Congress has learned from the 16-day ordeal. While some argue that Republicans are dropping too sharply in the polls to take such a hard line on budget negotiations again, most believe that the fundamental dynamics haven’t shifted – meaning more shutdowns and possible defaults could be waiting in the wings. The next standoff could come as soon as January, when the new spending agreement ends or in February, when the new debt ceiling level is reached.”

Wonk Wire: We haven’t seen the last of budget brinksmanship.

Ron Fournier: “Faced now with the choice between partisan politics and a risky high ground, the president has an opportunity to leverage this ‘victory’ for a long-term budget deal that raises taxes and tames entitlements. Obama won. Now can he lead? Does he have the guts to anger liberal backers with a budget deal on Social Security and Medicare? Is he willing to engage sincerely with Republicans? Does he want a legacy beyond winning two elections and enacting a health care law that, judging by its horrendous launch, may never live up to its promise? If the answer to those questions is ‘yes,’ Obama has hidden his intentions well.”

New York Times: “Even with the shutdown of the United States government and the threat of a default coming to an end, the cost of Congress’s gridlock has already run well into the billions, economists estimate. And the total will continue to grow even after the shutdown ends, partly because of uncertainty about whether lawmakers might reach another deadlock early next year.”

“A complete accounting will take months once the government reopens and the Treasury resumes adding to the country’s debt. But economists said that the intransigence of House Republicans would take a bite out of fourth-quarter growth, which will affect employment, business earnings and borrowing costs. The ripple from Washington will be felt around the globe.”

Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) told the New York Times he was opposed to the deal to reopen the federal government and raise the debt ceiling. He also suggest he’s ready for another showdown.

Said Fleming: “I’ll vote against it. But that will get us into Round 2. See, we’re going to start this all over again.”

“Anytime you fight for something you really believe in and something you think is important, then the fight is going to be worth it.”

— Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), interviewed on CNN, on the 16 day government shutdown.

First Read: “Unless we missed it, we didn’t hear a single apology from members of Congress, especially from the side that precipitated the shutdown. The president apologized once last week for all this.”

Joshua Green: “While the shutdown might look like the spectacular self-immolation of a band of bitter enders, it’s better understood as the natural consequence of a decades-long shift in the American political landscape…Congress has become so intensely divided that there isn’t much room left at the edges of the ideological continuum. Far from being an aberration, crises are more like the new normal…It’s not hard to envision a future that looks an awful lot like the present, with Republicans just strong enough to maintain control of the House, but shut out of the Senate and White House, and Democrats unable to regain the unified control of Washington they enjoyed during Obama’s first two years. This is a formula for plenty of drama and few accomplishments.”

National Journal: “Two main assumptions underpin those Democratic hopes. The first is that Republicans, wounded politically in the current shutdown bout, will not want to rehash another government-shutdown battle in only 90 days. The second is that GOP hawks will come to the table to discuss unwinding the automatic cuts in place due to sequestration because the defense sector will take a bigger share of cutbacks in 2014 than it did in 2013.”

“Both assumptions could prove false. Democrats have consistently overestimated the current, tea-party-infused Republican Party’s willingness to negotiate away sequestration because of defense spending. And plenty of House Republicans, even amid plummeting poll numbers, did not sound ready to give up the fight.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s Republican enemies “seized on a provision included in the final deal they said was a betrayal of conservative causes,” the Lexington Herald Leader reports.

“The deal contained a $2.8 billion authorization for the Olmstead lock and dam project in Western Kentucky that at first glance appeared to many as McConnell sneaking pork into the last-minute bill. While McConnell was the target, Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander said he asked for its inclusion.”

“I’m not prepared to suggest that this has been a complete loss.”

— Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), quoted by the New York Times, on the 16 day government shutdown.

The deal reached by Congress to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling “averts a financial catastrophe but leaves the weakened U.S. economy facing new threats,” the Washington Post reports.

“But while the bipartisan deal ends a period of disruption that has slowed the economy — the shutdown removed more than $20 billion in direct government spending and related economic activity — it creates new perils, setting up other economy-shaking deadlines in just a few months.”

“It also does almost nothing for the country’s existing economic challenges, including automatic spending cuts that are worsening the problem of high unemployment and a long-term debt challenge posed by mounting costs in health-care and retirement programs.”

Congressional Republicans “conceded defeat in their bitter budget fight with President Obama over the new health care law, agreeing to end a disruptive 16-day government shutdown and extend federal borrowing power to avert a financial default with potentially worldwide economic repercussions,” the New York Times reports.

“With the Treasury Department warning that it could run out of money to pay national obligations within a day, the Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday evening, 81 to 18, to approve a proposal hammered out by the chamber’s Republican and Democratic leaders after the House on Tuesday was unable to move forward with any resolution. The House followed suit a few hours later, voting 285 to 144, to approve the Senate plan, which would finance the government through Jan. 15 and raise the debt limit through Feb. 7.”

The U.S. Senate passes a bipartisan solution to the weekslong budget crisis, voting 81-18 to raise the nation’s borrowing limit and fully reopen the federal government, the Wall Street Journal reports.