It’s unclear who really won the battle (though a new poll shows Americans crediting Democrats more than Republicans), but we do know the Democrats and the Republicans will continue fighting the budget wars. All sides claimed victory after agreeing to a deal less than an hour before the government was poised to shutdown. The fight that lies ahead now focuses on raising the debt ceiling and the future of already accumulated debt.

Before members of Congress can debate the “radical” 2012 budget proposed by the GOP, they will have to resolve the debt ceiling. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has warned that by May 16, the country’s debt will max out its limit of more than $14 trillion; according to a report by CNN Money, the government needs to borrow $738 billion between April 1 and Sept. 30 to prevent default. This will not be possible without raising the debt ceiling, which some Republican lawmakers already said they won’t support. Should the country’s credit default, though, it will be a financial armageddon, including “a severe global financial crisis (possibly larger in magnitude than the one the world began experiencing in 2007 and 2008), and a significant long-term increase in the United States’ borrowing costs, which could cost it its leadership position in the global economy,” according to the New York Times.

For this second part of the budget war, political strategist Robert Creamer wrote on the Huffington Post that the Republicans have already lost some leverage, citing “Boehner's decision to throw in the towel on the Republican caucus demand that any deal eliminate government support for women's health clinics -- including Planned Parenthood” and “the tenacity of the president and Senator Reid” to play hard ball into the final hours. How this all plays out politically is still far from clear, but legislators could barely go to bed on Friday before they started to get ready for the next fight.