The government’s troops are rallying behind the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. “After the House voted this month to defund a major part of the U.S. Census Bureau, the agency is taking the threat very seriously,” reports the Washington Times, “with its supporters in both business and government rallying to preserve the annual questionnaire.”
Wait. Who could be against the Census Bureau? Its constitutional charter is to enumerate citizens every ten years for the purpose of apportioning representation in Congress. This is a necessary and unremarkable administrative function.
Oh, wait—again. Government bloat is a law of gravity, and the Census Bureau does far, far more than count noses. Its American Community Survey has made the Census Bureau the research arm for the welfare/redistribution state and a source of corporate welfare in the form of demographic data about Americans.
So Census goes around asking people dozens of questions that have nothing to do with the agency’s constitutional purpose.
The ACS is controversial enough among the strongly principled that Census has a Web page entitled: “Is the American Community Survey legitimate?” Their answer: “Yes. The American Community Survey is legitimate. It is a survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.” (Did you know there’s a whole class on the “appeal to authority” at Fallacy University?…)
The real authority they cite is Title 13 of the U.S. code, which, in section 221, allows the government to fine people who refuse to answer the Census Bureau’s questions. It’s illegal to say “none of your damn business” when a government official comes around asking about your toilet. I’ve written many times, in long form and short, that the helping hand of government strips away privacy before it goes to work.
So it’s nice to see that Rand Paul (R-KY) in the Senate and Ted Poe (R-TX) in the House have introduced a bill to make the American Community Survey voluntary, unless it’s a question that the Census actually needs for its constitutional purposes. Reading public comments on the House bill is particularly interesting. There is a good number of people who want to be left well enough alone. They shouldn’t be subject to penalties for saying so. It’s a matter of principle and privacy.