While MAGA Republicans attempted to hold the country hostage to demands for unfeasible and unpopular cuts that would savage everything from health care to border enforcement to veterans benefits, President Biden swore up and down there would be no negotiations over the debt ceiling. Now, with no debt ceiling hike locked in, White House representatives are negotiating with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s aides. The media were quick to pounce, awarding McCarthy a political win. (The New York Times intoned: “Speaker Kevin McCarthy got what he wanted out of Tuesday’s debt limit talks at the White House — the chance to go one-on-one against President Biden.”) But that take misses the full picture.