South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint has emerged as a potential kingmaker for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, as Byron York details in a new Washington Examiner report. What does DeMint want in return for his support?
So far DeMint, who in 2008 supported former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, has given no hint about who he will endorse, or whether he will endorse at all. But after the first Republican debate in Greenville last Thursday, he laid out one requirement any candidate has to meet even to be considered for DeMint’s approval. And in the process, DeMint sought to enlist the GOP presidential field in the spending fight currently raging on Capitol Hill.
DeMint, along with every other Republican in the Senate, supports a balanced budget amendment that, if passed, would a) require a balanced budget within 10 years; b) limit federal spending to 18 percent of gross domestic product; and c) require a supermajority vote to raise taxes. DeMint won’t vote to raise the nation’s debt ceiling unless the amendment is passed first. And in Greenville, he made clear he’ll only consider a candidate who feels the same way.
“I couldn’t support a presidential candidate who did not say we have to have a balanced budget amendment pass before we support [raising the debt ceiling],” DeMint said. “I think we should go to the mat with Obama. I don’t think there should be any compromise on that, and if Obama wants to be closing part of the government next fall because he’s unwilling to balance the budget, I think we can win that argument.”
