Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) makes the conservative case against divorcing economic and social issues:

BAIER: Some of your fellow Republicans – Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana, has suggested calling a truce on social issues while the country deals with the emergency economic situation. What do you think about that?

DEMINT: Well, you can’t be a fiscal conservative and not be a social conservative. A large part of the expansive government is to make up for a dysfunctional society because our culture’s falling apart. The family’s falling apart.

Media Matters disapproves, but they are being overliteral. There are obvious, well-documented connections between family breakdown and the growth of the welfare state. (There are also less obvious but equally well-documented connections that run in the opposite direction.)