Huntsman Goes All in For Ryan

While watching Jon Huntsman give his remarks on his jobs plan, I paid attention to how his speech described the existential threat of US debt.

Huntsman made clear he supports a Balanced Budget Amendment because "our debt is immoral and should be unconstitutional." During a question-and-answer session, he added that the debt had to be controlled or it was going to "metastasize and kill this country."

In the past, Huntsman has taken positions on issues which do not endear him to the conservative base but where he believes Republicans need to change--notably on civil unions and climate change. It's likely that when he talks about how he wants a Balanced Budget Amendment that he is not pandering. I think he is sincere.

Huntsman says that his jobs plan is based on the Ryan budget and he has also made clear that he would like to see the Ryan budget passed.

The problem for Huntsman is that the Ryan budget is unconstitutional under the terms of the Republicans own Balanced Budget Amendment. Huntsman also says that his tax plan is revenue-neutral so as far as we know, there is no plan to close the gap between the Balanced Budget Amendment's requirements and Ryan's budget.

This isn't a Huntsman specific problem, if other candidates make similar statements they will be trapped in the same box.