I'm guessing you weren't around for the 2011 and 2013 debt ceiling standoff. Before that, the minority party generally did some kabuki flagellation of our government's irresponsibility, did some more grandstanding, and passed it. 2011 was the first time anyone had demanded any substantive policy concessions for it. And that's because it is a catastrophic breach in the norms of good governance: the leverage comes from a willingness to allow misery on a scale the congress has never intentionally tried to inflict on its own populace.
This Yglesias column is representative of the liberal consensus at the time
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox...bill_shows_why_compromise_is_unthinkable.html
But if you don't believe yglesias that this was breathtakingly and unprecedentedly irresponsible, the debt ceiling fight lead to the first downgrade in American debt in the country's history.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_government_credit-rating_downgrades
Less well known, our AAA status was renewed after the 2014 debt ceiling increase went off without a hitch.
One of Obama's most important legacies, as important as preventing a second depression with the stimulus or Obamacare, was winning that 2013 fight and establishing that minority parties would not be able to risk default to score political points. We cannot allow the democrats now to undo his work.