Sure, the fundraising number is a gimmick, and a weak one at that, but it's more than a little nitpicky to say he should have used 1787 rather than 1776. I think if you asked every American what year the Constitution was passed, 99% would get it wrong, and the plurality would say 1776. Let's face it, 1776 is a much more recognizable figure.

That said, more of the same tired, empty ideas from the GOP. Didn't McCain try this one in November? That didn't go over too well, and this one won't either.

But it can be twittered in 10 characters!

"Tax Credit"

That's why they like twitter. Like their policies and ideas, 140 characters or less.

Instead of "Talking Points" when should start calling them "Twitter Points"

What happens when TARP money runs out? DeMint doesn't know. What happens with Americans who can't get insurance because of pre-existing conditions? DeMint doesn't know. What's to stop employers from scrapping their own plans and simply telling their employees to take the DeMint voucher? DeMint doesn't know. What happens when costs continue to spiral out of control? DeMint doesn't know.

Say it: Demint 2012.

...so devoid from any moorings in reality

Didn't I see DeMint in that new movie Up?

Not to mention the fact that, at best, the $2000 wouldn't pay for more than a month or two of decent coverage. What a dimwit.

Doesn't Demint's pitch prove he demented and uneducated? But then, Demint attended gov'ment schools, including UTenn. (See how little a taxpayer subsidized "edumaction" is worth? I'm sure Demint didn't repay his subsidy to Tennessee taxpayers when he obtained anti-government/libertarian religion. And I sure he hasn't declined Federal healthcare and pension benefits.)

My God how sad is it that our own elected representatives don't even know American history.

Demint, FYI: Google "Articles of Confederation"....

Pathetic

I'm *healthy*, and my insurance still costs $5K a year just for myself. People actually *sick* would of course still be uninsurable.

There speaks a man who has never had to purchase health insurance on his own.

I believe the only way to take back our freedom ... DeMint

Um, the freedoms we need to "take back" are the ones we lost under the Bush administration. So I'm glad to hear that he'll be pushing Obama to stop unwarranted wire-tapping.

Principles of 1776.

He is for slavery? The buying and selling and sexual abuse of other human beings?

if stupid were illegal -- and it ought to be for our elected leaders -- DeMinted would get a life sentence making french fries for the suicidal masses...

I wonder if DeMint is truly unaware of when the Constitution was written or, perhaps, if he, like most Republicans today; I wonder if he really isn't celebrating a confederacy, which the U.S. was originally until it nearly caused the fledgling independent states to go to war with one another over tariffs and the like. If my history serves me, it was that kind of violence that served as the motivation behind forming our current Constitution and Republic. So, I think, like many in the contemporary Federalist Society; I think today's radical Republicans are really more about reconstituting the Articles of Confederation. Hence, for DeMint, the Articles of Confederation are, in his mind, the Constitution.

It takes true chutzpah to pull something like this off."

No it doesn't. Who's going to call him on this? He's in a safe Senate seat, so it's not like it's going to come back to haunt him in an attack ad or anything. And the librul media isn't concerned with fact-checking anything but Democratic statements, since they're the only ones that actually base theirs on real data, policy, etc.

When there's no consequence for lying or being 100% wrong, it's not ballsy or brazen to go off half-cocked and spew ridiculous statements - it's taking advantage of the fact that no one's paying attention.

DeMintia - "a Republican fantasy-land so devoid from any moorings in reality that one is forced, willy-nilly, to admire it"

I will answer on DeMint's behalf:

Q. What happens when TARP money runs out?
A. Taxcuts for banks.
Q. What happens with Americans who can't get insurance because of pre-existing conditions? A. A. Taxcuts for... the sick.
Q. What's to stop employers from scrapping their own plans and simply telling their employees to take the DeMint voucher?
A. Taxcuts for employers.
Q. What happens when costs continue to spiral out of control?
A. Ummm... taxcuts?

Sure, the fundraising number is a gimmick, and a weak one at that, but it's more than a little nitpicky to say he should have used 1787 rather than 1776. I think if you asked every American what year the Constitution was passed, 99% would get it wrong, and the plurality would say 1776.

<pedantic>
Benen is saying that there were no "Constitutional principles" "promised" by "founding fathers" in 1776; they were proposed (not "promised") in 1787 by the "founding fathers" when the Constitution was written. Neither of these dates is the date the Constitution was passed (i.e., ratified), which is 1788.

One could also make a case that a set of "constitutional" (but not "Constitutional") principles were proposed in 1777 (the Articles of Confederation, ratified in 1781.)
</pedantic>

What happens with Americans who can't get insurance because of pre-existing conditions?

They have $2000 to pay for a cheap casket they can bury in their backyard?

The whole 1776/Constitution conflation is part of a pattern by politicians who care deeply about invoking the symbolism of our national ideals but not so much about their practical application. He likes to say "constitutional principles" because it sounds conservative, and he likes to say "1776" because it was a legendary year. But of course he can find nothing in either the Declaration or the Constitution that says the government can't offer a health insurance policy. So he's being patriotically non-specific in his dissent, not wanting donors to think about the details too much before they open their wallets.

hmmm, let's see here. Whatever the GOP says is the gospel truth. Their constituents believe everything they say because, gee, 'the GOP is soooo smart.'

I would advise everyone to see the movie "idiocracy." This movie is about the future of America rewarding people for being dumb, to the point the leaders didn't know what to do with landfills. Starbucks was no-longer a coffee house, but, a business to get bj's. Fox news - the female newscasters are scantily clad. The greeter for Costco, "Welcome to Costco. I love you." People watered crops with Gatorade instead of water because they believed it had electrolytes....

The movie was made by the makers of Beavis & Butthead. Hilarious, but, it's scarey to see how this is what is actually happening to America.

Thanks GOP!!!

I'm convinced that the only Democratic reply needed to any Republican plan, policy, or goal is:

"Are you stupid?"

Now if we could just get a handful of media people to ask it on TV, on radio, and in the papers. It could easily catch fire and everyone would be asking it of their Republican representatives!

Hey, I can dream...

What happens when TARP money runs out? DeMint doesn't know. What happens with Americans who can't get insurance because of pre-existing conditions? DeMint doesn't know.

More to the point, he doesn't care.

"All men are created equal", "inalienable rights", and "government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed" are "constitutional principles". The U.S. Constitution, including the 5th and other amendments, is a particular expression of those principles.

Get a grip.

Given the constant references in DeMint's pitch, it seems like the kind of detail he's want to get right.

Where, exactly, does SC rank in "education" among the 50 states?

Unfortunately, I don't think his "audience" knows just how stupid he is.

I can't do all this alone....

SC voters can give a sigh of relief, the rest of us are grateful the system still works.

The Constitution also wasn't written by Jesus but I be DeMint doesn't know that either.

Voucher = welfare by any other name.

Intellectually empty = health co-ops and vouchers proposals. At least single payer is a much easier concept.

Yes, hard to imagine a true money-grubber passing up the potential of those extra millions, gained 21 cents at a time....

And clearly you do not understand the beautiful simplicity of Jim DeMint's proposal. He does not have to know how all of those things will happen after we pass out $2k vouchers. He just knows they WILL happen. Why? Because the free market it magic, that's why! Just like unicorns and cupcakes with sparkles.

Jim DeMint, conservative Zenmeister. He can reduce any complex issue to simple sounding, yet unsolvable koans.

Also, he does not need to know what year the Constitution was actually created. He feels the Constitution in his heart, which is oh so much better than your stupid reality with its liberal bias.

"All men are created equal", "inalienable rights", and "government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed" are "constitutional principles".

Perhaps, but its even harder to stretch those as inconsistent with a national healthcare plan includign a publicly funded alternative than the particular provisions of the US Constitution that conservatives usually try to use against public programs. So that just shifts which part of the argument is most ludicrous.

Is there something in the water in South Carolina that can create 15 generations of morons? These idiots go back to being this stupid before the Revolution! John C. Calhoun, Strom Thurmond, Jim DeMint, Lindsey Graham, Governor Sanford - the list is endless. And what does that say for the citizenry, who must think these guys smarter than themselves and worthy of being their leaders?