As lawmakers lurch toward a soft May deadline for raising the debt ceiling, the common wisdom holds that Republicans are willing to go there, but not without concessions. What sort of concessions are we talking about? There are a few possibilities — among them are specific program eliminations and statutory spending caps based on GDP.

But Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., is backing, and threatening to filibuster the debt ceiling vote unless he gets the always-elusive Balanced Budget Amendment. The amendment failed to pass the U.S. Senate in 1996 by just one vote, under far more favorable circumstances. The new amendment is less likely to draw Democratic support because it requires a two-thirds vote for tax increases, a three-fifths vote for increases to the debt ceiling, and a three-fifths vote to spend more than 18 percent of GDP.