Did Kevin McCarthy just waste his political capital?

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R) secured a much-needed legislative victory on Wednesday when his Republican caucus pushed a bill to raise the debt limit across the finish line, albeit by the narrowest of margins.

But McCarthy won’t have much time to celebrate The Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023’s passage, MSNBC Opinion Writer/Editor Hayes Brown writes.

More importantly, the speaker likely just wasted whatever political capital he had on an intramural squabble that ended with the passage of a bill that’s going nowhere in the Senate and which President Joe Biden has promised to veto if it ever gets that far.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the bill the “Default on America Act” and Biden described it as a “MAGA economic agenda” that includes “spending cuts for working- and middle-class folks.”

And McCarthy will desperately need that capital in the coming months when he has to negotiate with Democrats, Brown argues.

“In cobbling together this short-term victory, McCarthy has spent much of the capital he’d need to solve this Republican-created crisis in a way that lets him remain as speaker,” Brown writes.

With little room to maneuver after a grueling fight to win the speakership, McCarthy sought to avoid conflict within his caucus by focusing on the passage of measures that, although largely popular among Republicans, have no chance of passage with the Senate and White House under Democratic control.

“That means that while McCarthy has to feel good after the drama leading up to this moment, the problem is actually far from being solved,” Brown writes.

“A failed vote Wednesday would have sent him back to the drawing board, giving the Democrats a stronger hand to push for a clean debt limit increase. But if anything, the more dangerous phase for him is between now and when the crisis comes to a head, most likely this summer.”