It got them an answer.
The conservative base of the GOP was essentially arguing that the American public disliked Obamacare enough that they would accept the tactic of holding up the CR/debt ceiling as a way of forcing changes to the bill. In that scenario, red state Senators (Begich, Pryor, etc.) would be put under pressure from a public that was eager for a compromise solution that involved both restoring the government and rollbacks on the ACA. The public would recognize that the House is the chamber that decides spending, and if the President or Senate want a particular level of spending they have to be prepared to bargain for it.
That did not happen. At all. Though there are some conservatives who are still trying to convince themselves that the public really was on their side and wanted them to prevail, for the most part the conservative base was shown to be wrong. Whatever the public's views on the ACA, they clearly rejected the idea that the debt ceiling and/or a government shutdown were legitimate procedural vehicles for pursuing them.
So now, Boehner and others in the party don't have to do this again. Enough of the Tea Party (and other conservatives) have been shown that they don't have the ability to force changes in the ACA this way that they'll be weaker if they try to push this strategy once more.
Beyond that, this was a horrific outcome for the GOP. They managed to accomplish nothing tangible, drive up their negatives, and distract people from the ACA - at a time where almost everyone (up through John Stewart, Ezra Klein, etc.) feels that the roll-out has been utterly botched. So instead of two full weeks of news cycle about how bad the ACA has been rolled out, they get two weeks of news cycle about what idiots they are.
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