Five things the US debt-ceiling deal suggests about the future

1. House MAGA Republicans will be less of a force

It was supposed to be their ace in the hole, their single biggest bargaining leverage. But in the end, House Maga Republicans got surprisingly little out of their agreement to increase the debt ceiling.

Yes, they were irresponsible. They manufactured a debt crisis out of whole cloth. They played a reckless hostage-taking game. They could have wrecked the full faith and credit of the United States. They demanded spending cuts that would have hurt lots of vulnerable Americans.

Yet in...