Census Update

I received my United States Census questionnaire today. Unlike the letter sent by the U.S. Census Bureau a week before that I discuss in my last post, the cover letter to the questionnaire explains the legal purpose of the Census: to apportion representatives in Congress among the states. Then it explains that the survey results are also used in order to dole out government largess, but the letter does so in a manner that makes it clear that this use of the survey results is secondary, unlike the first letter, which made it appear that it was the sole purpose.

The Obama Administration could have and should have written the first letter like the second one, instead of giving in to the temptation to politicize the Census and cynically appeal to people's economic self-interest instead of their civic responsibility.