“The census helps us know exactly what we need, so everyone can get their fair share of funding.”<\/em><\/p>\n –\u00a02010 Census TV Ad<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n A river runs through it? Nope.<\/p><\/div>\n I don’t recall reading\u00a0in the Constitution about the government needing\u00a0to know what we need. \u00a0I do recall reading that a census must be taken to ensure the proper distribution of congressional members. \u00a0 However, even that has gone beyond the ridiculous, with state-sponsored gerrymandering that produces districts with\u00a0geographical footprints that look like some kind of meandering wetlands mapping.<\/p>\n Let’s back up a bit. \u00a0 \u00a0The official census website<\/a> says that some $400 billion (with a ‘b’) will be controlled each year <\/em>based on the outcome of the census. \u00a0 \u00a0All of the items listed as spending examples are either not Constitutionally sanctioned, have a history of massive cost overruns and underperformance, or both. \u00a0Indeed, the entire premise of knowing “what we need” is an impossibility. \u00a0 But impossibility has never deterred our determined legislators. \u00a0 Like nationalized health care, this is less about what we need than it is about what Congress insists that we have, and insists that it have for itself, namely, impressive sounding statistics on which to justify an ever-increasing government and corresponding money grab.<\/p>\n Then there’s the issue of “fair share”. \u00a0 Fairness according to who? \u00a0Nancy Pelosi? \u00a0Harry Reid? \u00a0John Boehner or Mitch McConnell? \u00a0 “Fairness” via government is all about a political process, and as we’re witnessing now with health care, when government is determined to institute “fairness”, there’s absolutely no telling to what lengths they’ll go. \u00a0 \u00a0 If there was ever any governmental admission concerning the existence a public feeding trough, the exhortations behind the census would be it. Where is the fairness in the economic harm brought about by endlessly pouring the slop into this trough, and in fact, continuing to make the trough larger and larger?<\/p>\n If the census merely possessed financial repugnance, that would be one thing. \u00a0 Unfortunately, its far more pernicious quality is its explicit perpetuation of racial divisiveness.<\/p>\n “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/civilsocietytrust.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Illinois_District_4_2004-300x299.jpg\" "\\"Illinois_District_4_2004\\"")
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