DeMint urges GOP to play chicken in debt talks

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said Tuesday he thinks Republicans need to avoid "chickening out" in deficit negotiations.

"I would not be playing chicken if I thought there was a good way to get out of it," DeMint said, making it clear that he does not believe GOP leadership has come up with a good plan.

The senator, a favorite of the Tea Party movement, has been outspoken in his opposition to House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) new two-step plan to tackle the deficit.

"I don't see this as a victory because it doesn't ... change anything structurally," he told conservative talk radio host Sean Hannity on his radio show. "[Boehner] believes this is the best we can do right now, and it is the best we can do before Aug. 2."

DeMint is urging Republicans not to blink in the face of the Treasury Department's Aug. 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling before the U.S. exceeds its borrowing authority.

The two-term lawmaker has said before he does not believe that passing the deadline means the government will default on its debt.

"We've been in a game of chicken all year," DeMint said, referring to deficit talks that have been ongoing in various forms for months. "Democrats knew it but we didn't. We're already in the game and we can't get out of it, so really it's a matter of who's going to chicken out."

The two-step plan offered by Boehner on Monday would raise the debt ceiling by $1 trillion for a few months and make $1.2 trillion in cuts as the first step. Step two would be to appoint a commission to recommend additional deficit-reduction proposals for Congress to vote on and require a vote on a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution.

DeMint criticized Boehner's plan for failing to implement enough cuts immediately, and cast doubt on the efficiency of a Congressional commission. DeMint has pledged to continue working to pass the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, which conditions raising the debt ceiling on immediate spending cuts, capping annual spending and voting on a balanced-budget amendment. The measure passed in the House but was tabled in the Senate.

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