It does mean the next round of debt ceiling talks won’t happen in an election year, which was McCarthy’s original intent.
So there’s at least that.
Honestly, I think there’s more to praise about this potential deal than just that. Biden was very smart to make this a budget matter as well. Unlike the debt limit, the budget is something the president has to negotiate with the House anyway, and there isn’t a constitutional amendment (that I am aware of at least) which would potentially give Biden an out if the GOP decided to use that process to shut down the government over their demanded draconian spending cuts. From what I’ve heard on his deal with McCarthy, it would supersede the appropriation process for two years as well, which means (as I understand it) that the GOP run house loses both of their biggest hostages until after the next election.
Moreover, in exchange for losing, frankly, a lot of the cuts they really wanted, the GOP apparently got a commitment to flat non-defense discretionary spending. Which could end up being a pretty good deal, since the previous House (right before the GOP took over) locked in the largest possible increases to non-defense discretionary spending that they could negotiate in anticipation of the budget fight McCarthy just gave away.
Heck, even something the GOP technically sort of won on, the changes to SNAP that increased the age threshold for work requirements, also eliminates the work requirements for veterans and homeless people, which would actually make this an expansion in a lot of ways.
I mean I still would have preferred a situation where we didn’t have to play this game with the GOP at all, but I also don’t think the current outcome could have gone much better, given the kind of nutjobs we’re dealing with. House Republicans were all set to pull a Nero and let the country burn, but McCarthy ended up being the fiddle Biden played.