Former Sen. Jim DeMint, the new president of the Heritage Foundation, began work there Thursday with a letter to the group’s staff outlining his vision for the organization. Mitt Romney would find much to admire in it.

Though he adjusted the former GOP presidential candidate’s estimate that 47 percent of the voting population is “dependent upon government,” DeMint doesn’t stray far from the underlying message.

“Today, more people than ever before — 69.5 million Americans, from college students to retirees to welfare beneficiaries — depend on the federal government for housing, food, income, student aid, or other assistance once considered to be the responsibility of individuals, families, neighborhoods, churches, and other civil society institutions,” DeMint wrote.

Or workhouses and debtor prisons. Now, of course, we have the streets, so there’s no reason these worthless old geezers and other unproductives should cost us a dime.

“The United States must reverse the direction of these trends or face economic and social collapse.”

More: Jim DeMint: ‘69.5 Million Americans’ Are Dependent on Government