Nearly two years ago, House Speaker John Boehner faced an insurrection from the right flank of his party that forced a government shutdown and nearly cost him his job. This year, the governing environment has measurably detoxified, making passage of perpetually vexing items such as a long-term fix to Medicare physician reimbursement rates possible. Boehner's road ahead today looks less steep than it once did. A big reason why: so far in 2015, the House GOP's "Coalition of the Willing" has expanded, while the "Coalition of the Unwilling" has shrunk. But as Congress hurtles towards the August recess, showdowns over the Export-Import bank and the Highway Trust Fund will test anew just how much the party has shifted. We first came up with these classifications in 2013, a time when the House GOP leadership struggled mightily to pass must-pass pieces of bipartisan legislation such as Hurricane Sandy Relief, the Violence Against Women Act, and the Farm Bill. The anti-spending rebels in the House GOP conference made their party a "majority in name only," repeatedly forcing Boehner to break the so-called
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