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 the end, they got almost zilch. They’ve been shown to be paper tigers.

The final deal leaves Biden’s economic agenda mainly untouched (except for a limited rollback of some IRS funds and the ending of a pause on federal student loan payments expected to expire anyway).

And although it imposes new work requirements for the beneficiaries of some federal aid, including childless adults who receive food stamps, it increases spending in the program (and is expected to cover more people) while sparing Medicaid.