Tonight, after weeks of brinksmanship, posturing and intense negotiation, President Biden will soon sign into law a bipartisan bill that lifts the countryús debt limit and averts what could have been an economic disaster.

The president spoke about the billús significance a short time ago.

JOE BIDEN: No one got everything they wanted, but the American people got what they needed.

We averted an economic crisis.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That bill, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, was negotiated between President Biden and Speaker McCarthy and their teams.

It passed the House overwhelmingly on Wednesday and was rushed through the Senate late Thursday.

Joining us now to discuss this and more, Peter Baker is Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times, Leigh Ann Caldwell is co-author of The Washington Postús Early 202 and Anchor of Washington Post Live, Asma Khalid is White House correspondent for NPR and co-Host of the NPR Politics Podcast, and Nikole Killion is Congressional Correspondent for CBS News.

Welcome to you all.

Thank you all for being here.

Peter, to you first.

Does the passage of this deal and the eventual soon to be signing by the president tell us anything new about President Biden and how he and his White House team operate?

PETER BAKER, Chief White House Correspondent, The New York Times: Well, I think what it tells us is that President Biden, of course, has now been able to burnish his reputation for bipartisanship.

This is important to him.

Itús part of his identity, his political identity.

Itús part of his case for re-election next year.

Iúm the adult in the room at a time of lots of fractious fighting among the parties.

It doesnút necessarily match the desires and priorities of his own party.

A lot of his House Democrats would have preferred heúd be more of a fighter, less of a compromiser.

But for him, you saw him tonight give that speech in which he made clear that his priority is being seen as somebody who rises above the partisanship in the nationús interest.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Asma, do you see the same way that the President tonight really defended how he held back what was a Republican attack on what he thinks of as his legislative priorities, is that what he thinks of as victory?

ASMA KHALID, White House Correspondent, NPR: Certainly.

And I would echo what Peter said.

I mean, in many ways, he emphasized the fact tonight that he ran his 2020 presidential campaign as being someone who could find consensus, who would help the nation find unity, and he believes in bipartisanship still.

He echoed those very similar themes this evening.

What I also heard from him, though, too, was a sense of, to your point, what he was able to defend, right?

That he was able to protect Medicaid, to some degree, he was able to protect Social Security.

And, to me, those were messages directed toward a larger possible 2024 electorate, just so folks would be aware of where his ambitions are, I think leading up into the re-elect.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Leigh Ann, though, he did say for many months, I am not going to negotiate on this debt limit, and then he did.

Does that open up the future of what he calls hostage taking to become the norm by how he operated?

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, Co-Author, The Washington Postús Early 202: Well, let me back up just a little bit.

Itús really interesting.

In the middle of these negotiations, Democrats were very angry that he, in fact, did engage in these negotiations.

They thought, as Speaker McCarthy was coming out talking to the press all day long, every single day, really dominating the narrative, there were members of his party, including Sheila Jackson Lee, who stood up in a closed door conference meeting and asked Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader, to ask President Biden, please address the nation, do an address to the nation, put pressure on these Republicans.

And the White House did not do that.

And now he did this address tonight to claim victory, to use it as an opportunity, as Asma said, to talk about his priorities, what heús accomplished, and what heús been able to fight back.

But I will say that thereús a lot of concern on Capitol Hill about what sort of precedent this creates.

Thereús a lot of members on the right and the conservative faction of the party who are very angry that this debt limit is suspended to 2025 because they say that Kevin McCarthy gave away his leverage to try to reform government spending.

And so this might set another precedent for depending on whoús in power in two years.

NIKOLE KILLION, Congressional Correspondent, CBS News: And I would argue, too, I mean, in talking to Senate Democrats on the other side of the aisle, many of them told me they actually think going forward that the 14th amendment should be invoked.

We know that was a debate-- WILLIAM BRANGHAM: He should have used that to get out of this.

NIKOLE KILLION: Well, no, for future debate, because from their standpoint, they donút want to be subject to hostage taking the next time around from their point of view.

And so, obviously, we know the president argued that the 14th Amendment didnút have time to vet it out.

It could be subject to legal challenges.

But now, when youúre looking two years out, whether itús Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley, a number of senators told me they still feel that that should be an option on the table going forward.

ASMA KHALID: I also think there are questions, too, about what this means for the broader state of the U.S. economy, right?

You saw Fitch, the ratings agency, today warned that it is not necessarily taking the idea off the table that it would downgrade the U.S. credit rating.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Simply because of the way we behaved as a nation.

ASMA KHALID: Exactly, and that this doesnút necessarily preclude that theyúre worried about sort of future political fallout of this sort.

And to me, thatús really interesting because youúre hearing President Biden declare this as a political victory, but you donút get a sense that the sort of domestic economy feels that way definitively yet.

PETER BAKER: It doesnút actually end the debate, right?

It takes a debt ceiling off the table now for two years.

But that doesnút mean that the budget issues that they resolved are actually resolved, because you already hear people talking about going back to the well, right?

You heard the president tonight say, I want to come back on taxes for the wealthy.

You heard Republicans in the House say, letús go back on more cuts.

And you heard even Republicans and some Democrats in the Senate say, how about more money for the defense industry or defense of the country?

We donút think that they got enough for the Pentagon.

So, itús really not a closed deal.

We have these appropriations bills that will come up in the fall.

Theyúre going to re-litigate a lot of these issues.

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL: And what Republicans are planning to do actually in the next couple of weeks is theyúre going to try to start the process to extend the Trump tax cuts.

And so Democrats are furious saying, if you care about budget and government spending and reducing the deficit, extending the Trump tax cuts is not the way to do it.

So, youúre right, thereús going to be more budget fights ahead.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Well, at least we all get to stay in point for a little bit longer.

Nikole, do you think that we in the political press at all overreacted to the threat to the worry about a default?

I mean, deadlines have an incredible way of quickening peopleús pulses and forcing action.

There has been fair amount of bipartisan reaction.

I mean, do you think we got too worried about this or do you think that there was an appropriate level of concern?

NIKOLE KILLION: Well, I think we were reporting what we were being told, which is that Janet Yellen sent letter after letter after letter to Congress saying, look, this is the date and if you donút do anything, then weúre going to have an economic catastrophe.

So, I donút think we and the press were blowing anything up.

We were reporting what the treasury secretary was conveying to lawmakers.

And, clearly, many of them felt, whether it was Republicans or Democrats, bound by that deadline, although you did have a number of Republicans who questioned the validity of the date and suggested that there could be some workarounds and the treasury could do some things if that date approaches.

But the bottom line is that I think everyone took that date seriously because, as we saw with the Senate, they got this cleared in record time.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Peter, Kevin McCarthy came through.

He thinks of this as a success.

At least thatús how heús presenting it publicly.

Does this tell us something about how he might govern over the next couple of years, vis-a-vis the White House?

PETER BAKER: I think it actually tells us a lot more about Kevin McCarthy in some ways and Joe Biden, because we didnút know whether Kevin McCarthy was going to be serious about governing, right?

In January, when he made it through those 15 ballots, he had to trade away the store to the hard right in his own caucus.

And the question was, okay, does that mean heús now forever beholden to their priorities or is he going to be able to make a compromise like he did with President Biden?

He seems proud of the fact that he made a compromise.

He seems actually to be perfectly comfortable that he came to the middle with the Democratic president, that they tend to vilify, and found that thatús a better solution for the country even at the expense of complaints on the right.

Now, that doesnút mean that the people on the right are going to let it go.

It may ultimately cost him down the road.

But for the moment, I think heús shown that he does have at least some instinct for governing.

NIKOLE KILLION: I actually thought that was one of the interesting things about what the president said tonight, because he said, with respect to bipartisanship, we can never stop trying.

And one thing Speaker McCarthy has said repeatedly from his speakership fight onward is that he doesnút give up.

So, both of them conveying a sense of optimism going forward.

Whether or not they continue working together, I think, remains to be seen.

PETER BAKER: He praised McCarthy, which might not help McCarthy.