Look past Jim Comey: The Census directors sudden resignation may create serious long-term problems
by Amanada Marcotte at Salon
http://www.salon.com/2017/05/11/look-past-jim-comey-the-census-directors-sudden-resignation-may-create-serious-long-term-problems/
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Republicans love cutting government budgets in order to fund tax cuts for rich people, of course, but the choice to target the Census Bureau is alarming because it has clear political ramifications. Not to put too fine a point on it, but there is reason to worry that Republicans may not want the bureau to do too good a job collecting the 2020 data on Americans. Having a full and accurate picture of the American population cuts against many conservative goals, so it’s no surprise that the party of “alternative facts” is not particularly interested in letting the Census Bureau do its job.
The most obvious concern is that census data is used to determine political representation, which is critical to a functioning democracy.
“Any turnover, any lack of funding, puts at risk a full and accurate count of every person in the country, and that has huge implications for fair representation,” explained Dan Vicuña, the national redistricting manager for Common Cause.
“There’s already a problem, even under the best of circumstances, with certain communities, especially communities of color, being counted fully and thus getting full representation in Congress, state legislatures and city councils,” continued Vicuña, whose nonpartisan group fights for fair representation and against corruption in government. “Compounding that problem by underfunding the count is a legitimate threat to democracy.”
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