Stop the American Community Survey

A CALL TO END THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY AND RESTRICT THE CENSUS BUREAU TO ITS ORIGINAL PURPOSE


We oppose the incredibly intrusive expansion of the U.S. census, the American Community Survey.

This new survey contains 24 pages of intrusive, inappropriate questions concerning matters that are simply none of the governments business, including ones job, income, physical and emotional health, family status, dwelling, and intimate personal habits. The survey questions are both ludicrous and insulting. It goes on and on, mixing inane questions with highly detailed inquiries about ones financial affairs.

The government has no legitimate need for this information, and should not have the power to demand it.

History shows that government often fails to keep information private, and sometimes even uses it in malevolent ways. At the very least the survey will be used to dole out pork, which is reason enough to oppose it.

The census is also a form of corporate welfare, because personal data collected on millions of Americans can be sold to private businesses. This is wrong. Taxpayers should never be forced to subsidize the cost of market research for businesses.

Another problem with the census is its focus on racial classification. When government tells us it wants information to help a given group, it assumes every individual who shares certain physical characteristics has the same interests, or wants the same things from government. This is an inherently racist and offensive assumption. The census, like so many federal policies and programs, inflames racism by encouraging Americans to see themselves as members of racial groups fighting each other for a share of the federal pie.

Americas founders never authorized the federal government to survey the people. More importantly, they never envisioned a nation where the citizens would roll over and submit to every government demand. This new survey is offensive to all who still embody that fundamental American virtue, a healthy distrust of government.

The American Community Survey is outrageous, insulting, and demeaning. It is intolerable to a free people. We insist that Congress end this bureaucratic inquisition now.

We call upon Congress to act immediately to:

1. Stop the American Community Survey.

2. Eliminate all funding for the American Community Survey and the long form, and reduce the Census Bureaus budget accordingly.

3. Restrict the Census Bureau to performing its only Constitutional function: a simple count every ten years.