COLUMBIA, S.C. — Republican candidates for president gathered Monday afternoon for an unusual forum that explored their views of the U.S. Constitution and how they believe the government has strayed from it.
The forum, hosted by a Tea Party favorite, Sen. Jim De Mint, R-S.C., reflected how much the Tea Party movement — which helped fuel last year’s historic Republican gains in Congress — continues to exert itself in the run-up to next year’s presidential election.
Candidates took the stage at the Palmetto Freedom Forum one at a time, for about 20 minutes each, taking questions on topics that ranged from the “usurpatory” tendencies of the Supreme Court to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy.
There were few opportunities for the candidates to issue their usual stream of campaign sound bites. Instead, the questions demanded from the candidates not only a description of how the government has failed to abide by the Constitution, but how to fix it.
“This is one of the most important subjects to me,” De Mint said. “Does our next president really understand what limited government means?”
All of the candidates tried to answer that question with a resounding “Yes.”
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney called for the repeal of a raft of federal legislation that he believes overstepped the government’s authority, from the health-care overhaul to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, when asked what federal programs he would eliminate, retorted, “I’d rather give you a list of the things we should keep” because the list would be shorter.
And Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., in an implicit dig at Romney, declared that even a state-level health-care law containing an individual insurance mandate would lie afoul of the Constitution.
“My guiding principle will be that government works best when it acts within the limitations of the Constitution, but it fails when it denies that principle and makes decisions based on political expediency,” Bachmann said.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Georgia businessman Herman Cain also participated in the forum, which was conducted before a small invited audience in downtown Columbia and was broadcast on CNN. Texas Gov. Rick Perry was to participate but flew home to attend to his state’s wildfires. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania were not invited because of their low standing in polls.
Mostly, the candidates hewed closely to the ideology of the Tea Party and conservatives generally, with unanimous support for eliminating government spending, reducing the national debt and upholding the Defense of Marriage Act.
“I learned a lot from these candidates today,” DeMint said.
