Friday, May 18, 2012

The continuing war on science part 46

We're back on the census beat thanks to another piece of news from Menzie Chinn:

From the National Association for Business Economics (NABE):
[t]he U.S. House of Representatives was considering an appropriations bill for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (H.R. 5326) that would drastically reduce funding for the Census Bureau and make participation in the American Community Survey voluntary.
... Regrettably, the legislation ultimately passed the House along party lines and was much more damaging than originally proposed. In its current form, H.R. 5326 will "devastate" the nation's economic statistics.
Specifically, the legislation will:
  • Terminate the American Community Survey;
  • Cancel the 2012 Economic Census; and
  • Halt development of cost-saving measures for the decennial census.

Chinn points out that this would be devastating for researchers such as himself. It would also be a hell of a blow to business analytics people like me who use this data on a daily basis all to save a trivial sliver of the federal budget.


2 comments:

  1. Amusingly (or horrifyingly?) the "Republicans Lite" in Canada passed and are in the process of passing very similar legislation, eliminating Canada's "Long-Form Census", and decimating scientific agencies across the board.

    There's something weird about modern 'conservatives' that makes them anti-science, anti-data, and anti-facts. It's disturbing.

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    Replies
    1. Let's not forget anti-business, that's the one I can't get over.

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