Catherine Rampell has some excellent coverage of the GOP war on the ACS that does an admirable job of not pulling punches and calling nonsense out as nonsense:
It is, more or less, the country’s primary check for determining how well the government is doing — and in fact what the government will be doing. The survey’s findings help determine how over $400 billion in government funds is distributed each year.
But last week, the Republican-led House voted to eliminate the survey altogether, on the grounds that the government should not be butting its nose into Americans’ homes.
“This is a program that intrudes on people’s lives, just like the Environmental Protection Agency or the bank regulators,” said Daniel Webster, a first-term Republican congressman from Florida who sponsored the relevant legislation….
….A number of questions on the survey have been added because Congress specifically demanded their inclusion. In 2008, for example, Congress passed a law requiring the American Community Survey to add questions about computer and Internet use. Additionally, recent survey data are featured on the Web sites of many representatives who voted to kill the program — including Mr. Webster’s own home page.
This stupidity encapsulates perfectly the extremeness that is showing its face in some elements of the GOP today. Between things like this and the debt ceiling insanity it is hard not to agree with those who claim there is an asymmetrical extremeness in politics today. It is a depressing display.
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Sunday ~ May 20th, 2012 at 8:03 pm
curtd59
We have what we have asked for.
When thugs put guns to the heads of Cornell University Professors a generation ago. Or when the health care bill was put through despite overwhelming opposition in the public. What do you expect that will happen?
There is no ‘We’.
Sunday ~ May 20th, 2012 at 8:42 pm
david
Is right-wing extremism today really plausibly a response to Cornell a generation ago?
Monday ~ May 21st, 2012 at 12:03 pm
michelle
Two generations ago.
I’m sure it matters to the couple of hundred people who are still aware that the event happened. But overall, the non-racist portions of right-wing extremism come from love of money and power.
We’re simply up to the part now where their greed overtakes them and they kill the goose rather than have the patience to wait for more eggs. It’s the ouroboros of democracy.
Monday ~ May 21st, 2012 at 12:39 am
Marcus
If unpopular legislation gets passed, I expect the legislators who passed it to lose in the next election cycle. Which is largely what happened (if they were up for reelection).
I don’t expect a complete fool to justify new legislation based in part on an ignorant view of what a scientific survey is.
Sunday ~ May 20th, 2012 at 10:38 pm
Airman Spry Shark
Perhaps areas requiring the granularity of feedback provided by the ACS are simply not appropriate for government action.
Monday ~ May 21st, 2012 at 1:53 am
grandtaco
It’s not stupidity. This is a scorched-earth war for control of the country’s wealth, and they’re winning.
Monday ~ May 21st, 2012 at 2:52 am
greg byshenk
This sort of thing might actually be useful to opponents in the upcoming election: “Representative X voted to make government unaccountable, by eliminating the ACS that checks how well programs are working.”
Monday ~ May 21st, 2012 at 5:04 am
lorenzofromoz
The reason/excuse difference is useful here. I am confident years of over-the-top rhetoric where conservatives were evil folk outside the realm of elementary decency has done much to create a mindset of “well, if we are not part of a common public realm, we will act accordingly”.
That is a reason; it is no excuse for this sort of nonsense,
Monday ~ May 21st, 2012 at 10:14 am
Jon
As this debate also happened in Canada last year, I think you need an explanation that covers both cases.
Monday ~ May 21st, 2012 at 12:26 pm
Kellen Gracey
What is Democracy without accountability?
Monday ~ May 21st, 2012 at 12:34 pm
michelle
Pretty close to what we have now.
Dimon’s on the board at the NY Fed. You don’t get much less accountability than that.
Monday ~ May 21st, 2012 at 2:16 pm
Bob Dobalina
Hmm. I think we see plenty of “extremeness” from Team Blue as well. Could you come up with a hypothetical action or position on any kind of remotely similar issue that would be so far left/collectivist/spendy that the Democrats wouldn’t dare embrace?
Monday ~ May 21st, 2012 at 2:33 pm
michelle
Universal healthcare.
Monday ~ May 21st, 2012 at 4:03 pm
Kellen Gracey
Only in the United States would universal healthcare be considered far left/collectivist/spendy.
Monday ~ May 21st, 2012 at 4:41 pm
michelle
Exactly, Kellen. As a group we seem to consider each other quite expendable if there’s a profit motive.
Tuesday ~ May 22nd, 2012 at 10:46 am
Gepap
Really? which one? Please give us the examples.
Wednesday ~ May 23rd, 2012 at 5:43 am
akismet-7127a1a85138e2366a22d009b882ebb9
You are the one who sees plenty of “extremeness”. Why don’t YOU give us an example of these extremes you see? And by the way, eliminating data collection that helps to keep government accountable is by no means too far out for conservatives. On the contrary, it passed in a landslide.
Wednesday ~ May 23rd, 2012 at 5:46 am
Wanderer
Don’t know why my akismet account shows up here… anyway…
Monday ~ May 21st, 2012 at 4:48 pm
Philo
There’s no contradiction between objecting to the means used to collect data and using the data once it has been collected.
Courts may have ruled that extensive, detailed questions may be included in the census, but those rulings may always be overruled. The authors of the Constitution certainly had nothing of the sort in mind; they expected the census simply to *count people*.
Rampell notes: “Under current law, participation is mandatory.” The libertarian inclination is to make fewer things mandatory. That is not “idiotic.”
Monday ~ May 21st, 2012 at 7:10 pm
Benny Lava
Do you have any evidence that the Constitutional authors intended for head counting only?
Tuesday ~ May 22nd, 2012 at 10:50 am
Gepap
This might make sense if it were not for the fact that it was the Founder’s themselves who began asking question on the census that went beyond just a simple head count. Their actions clearly speak louder than your words.
Wednesday ~ May 23rd, 2012 at 12:19 am
lfv
The constitution was handed down by Jesus. Do you think Jesus doesn’t already know all of this stuff?
Monday ~ May 21st, 2012 at 11:04 pm
Turgid Jacobian
The 1810 census was overseen by Preznit Madison (“the Father of the Constitution”). It’s second volume treated the commercial and manufacturing arts of the US. Perhaps the founders and drafters of the Constitution had different ideas about their ideas.
Wednesday ~ May 23rd, 2012 at 3:39 pm
Gabe
I’m not a republican but don’t like having the government come around asking questions about the race of my children or my income or what cars we drive. Really counting people by skin color…you defend that?
And please don’t insult me and assume I am a republican. However, if you want to check up on the effectivieness of government programs I can help with that for far less money than a big government survey would cost.
Friday ~ May 25th, 2012 at 1:24 pm
Gepap
Yes, I think having in depth accurate demographic and economic info is critical for policy makers to get an idea of what is going on in the country.
Thursday ~ May 24th, 2012 at 2:33 pm
Ann
You people evidently haven’t had the pleasure of receiving the so-called “American Community” Survey 28 page questionnaire probing into your very private and personal lives and demanding that you hand over your personal information – under penalty of law! Information, that if you have any intelligence at all, you wouldn’t release to your best friend! Does the Govt need to know when you bought your house, what you paid, what it’s worth now, how many times you’ve been married, what time you leave for work, how long does it take, what your utility bills are, what your sources of income are, do you have trouble dressing and concentrating, and on, and on and on? I can’t believe that this is America – where people roll over and have forgotten that we used to be a “shining city on a hill” where people thought for themselves, still believed in exceptionalism, and were thankful for their privacy and individual freedoms. The framers of the Constitution believed in all of this, and therefore safeguarded the privacy of its citizens in the Constitution of the United States of America. The Constitution still trumps rules and regulations laid out by un-elected beauricrats and sanctioned by Congress. There are plenty of ways to gather information helpful for community services without insulting and demeaning private citizens! Are you foolish enough to believe that all your personal information floating around is safe from exploitation? Wake up!
Friday ~ May 25th, 2012 at 1:24 pm
Gepap
Yes, the government does in fact need to know all those things, which is why the questions are mandatory. Some of the earlier censuses wrote down the assets of families, so this view of America you are trying to paint is nothing but fantasy begat by the fact that you lack historical understanding.
Also, being a citizen is never “private” – the very concept of citizenship is premised on being a member of a community with both privaleges AND obligations. Clearly you seem to ingore the obligations part of citizenship.
Tuesday ~ May 29th, 2012 at 9:28 am
It’s None of the Government’s Business…(“It’s not just school kids who are the victims of nosy questionnaires. The U.S. government has zeroed in on 250,000 Americans and demanded that they answer nearly a hundred nosy questio
[...] The idiotic war on the American Community Survey (modeledbehavior.com) [...]
Wednesday ~ August 1st, 2012 at 2:32 pm
Enough already: Leave the ACS alone « The D4TA M1NE
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