June 30 at 11:39AM
Colbert Joins the GOP's War on the Census
I've never understood why we need to spend so many valuable resources on a census, when an educated guesstimate would do the trick. For example, the house I'm in right now has 1500 square feet and three people in it, which means there's one person for every 500 square feet. The United States has 103,671,742,065,706 square feet, so we can safely guesstimate that there are 207 billion people in the US, give or take. You're welcome.
The Colbert Report airs Monday through Thursday at 11:30pm / 10:30c.
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I'd love to hear the real reasons Republicans have for wanting their followers to avoid the census. After all, the batshit crazy antics of Republicans in Congress are only a facade to fool the ignorant.
Stephen and Kevin, I'll assume you are not constitutional lawyers. Sandra Day O'Connor is (or was), and at the top of the heap as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.She says in her majority opinion in the 1999 case Department of Commerce that the census is the linchpin of the federal govt's statistics on indiduals, households, etc. Nothing about it's being unconstitutional. This has not been overruled, so it stands as good law today. From the very first Census, questions in addition to the number of people in the household were asked by the Census, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it's never been ruled unconstitutional. O'Connor graduated magna cum laude from Stamford University, and made law review and was third in her class at Stamford Law School while zipping through in two years rather than the required three.
Who am I to assume possesses the best credentials to say what's unconstitutional, you or her.
dude….. his ear… waaat daaa faaak..
If all Americans were honest on tax returns, there would be little need for an overall census. The census data is used for but not limited to: allocating extra funds to areas where income might be lower than say a neighboring city or where schools might be over-crowded. If the government doesn't know that the town you live in is currently hurting financially in the k-12 areas for example, the schools may not get the extra help it needs, thus your tax money might go to the town next door that might not need it ( or at all ), same for local Gov. The last time I filled out the census, the ONLY mandatory question was number of residents, the rest are " submit if you wanna ". Ok, so some feel that the Government should already know this from countless other forms and methods, YES and NO, when you are trying to server Millions of people, sometimes a little data consolidation is required, thus the census form. Good way to look at this for those in management, would it be easier for you to pull all employee records that work under you, looking for or during a meeting ask ( show of hands ). People that are paranoid of such are generally, how can I put this nicely ( mentally questionable ), meaning, if you REALLY feel that the USA Government is out to get you, hurt you, starve you're district financially for no good reason at all…….something is wrong with you or you are doing something really, really wrong yourself.
This entire EVIL administration thing has to stop………..when people make it up the ladder to what is considered the TOP OFFICES / JOBS in the USA ( CEO – Obama ), they have pasted many test, reviews, probed, etc……….if they make it to CEO of America, I really doubt they are out to cause intentional harm. There always that slim possibility, however, currently, the only ones screaming " one world order, socialism, evil, going to take out the Republican party, cut funding to Republican sections of the USA, etc " are the same ones that cherry pick info, cut audio clips short, spew half or no truth or fact at all, and hide behind " I'm just an Opinion show " when called out……….these jerks know what they are doing. Further more, during the elections Obama made it clear that cleaning up this mess ( war, ecom, etc ) was going to take time and effort from ALL of us and would not be fixed over night…………..I'd say if we can at least level issues out within the next few years, then near or within 10 years we should be back on track 110%………..anything sooner ( Obama Admin or OTHER ) would be a nice welcome, but not expected………..look balancing the check book after the Bush Admin spend, spend, spend years is going to be tricky and we are being surprised everyday by new discovery's ( excessive spending ) and YES, Obama administration is spending too, but so far, this spending will have a positive ROI, verses spending with nothing in return…………….
Yeah! Everybody listen to Stephen Adams, he is super serial!
No one has a problem with counting. Lots of people have a problem with all the other questions in the census, which are not called for in the Constitution, and thereby unlawful for the govt to be asking on the census forms.
@Stephen Adams
The issue is not with the census itself; we will fully comply with the Constitution and say how many people are in our household.
Beyond that, it is none of your business what color I am, what creed, my income, or anything else about me. If you want more, you'll need to amend the US Constitution to change this.
Stephen, google "sarcasm" download it to your data file.
Sorry, but a 'guesstimate' will NOT do. Per the US Constitution, and 'actual enumeration' must be made. That means counting. Nothing else will pass constitutional muster.
You'll need to amend the US Constitution to change this.