Miller went right back at him. “We have a division here in the Tea Party. I don’t support any of these constitutional amendments. I believe we have the tools right here, today, in order to preserve our financial strength, as well as our national security.”

DeMint kept walking her back. “The reason a lot of us are supporting a constitutional amendment,” he said, “is that they’ve done things before and made laws like pay-go—you can’t pass anything without paying for it. But every time it came up they’d waive it, with 51 votes. It was like a joke. The Social Security lockbox was supposed to keep us from spending Social Security funds. We kept spending them. There’s no institutional discipline.”

DeMint kept trying to convince her that he—Jim DeMint!—was not a squish. “If we don’t have a requirement to balance the budget, then politics will take it apart. Right now I’ve introduced $2.5 trillion over 10 years, and listen, the Democrats are just pounding us for wanting to cut essential services. Plus, the thing is, there’s no requirement that we have to do anything.”

“Sir,” said Miller, “have you ever said no to a teenager?”

DeMint moved quickly to assure her. “I can say no!”