"Then why, in the 2010 census are there questions regarding Gender, age, race and if you own or rent?"
Obviously, that was Obama's fault... everything else is, why not that too?
If you're in the workforce, the government already knows your gender, age, and probably your race. Whether you own or rent is a matter of public record. The Department of Commerce is required by law to justify adding questions for statistical reasons onto the census two years prior to the questionnaires being printed, and they were able to justify those, but the census remains primarily a body count.
There used to be a citizenship question on the Census long form - which most people don't get - but it was removed. Wilbur Ross lied to Congress about why Commerce wanted it on every census form for 2020 by saying the Justice Department needed it to enforce the Voting Rights Act - a claim that made no sense to anyone, for two main reasons: 1) SCOTUS had already effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act, and 2) you can't vote if you can't prove you're a citizen. So why do we need to ask about citizenship in the census?
Trump inadvertently spilled the beans during an interview in which he said we need the question for "districting" - ignorant of the Constitution as he usually is, he didn't realize that Congressional districts are based on TOTAL POPULATION, including children - not just citizens who can vote. And the argument against adding the question has been that it will cause many undocumented families not to comply, resulting in an undercount in those districts - which was the plan found in the files of a deceased Republican strategist who originally proposed the idea, by his daughter.
Again, the purpose of the census - as explained in Article 1 Section 2 - is to count bodies in order to determine the composition of the House of Representatives - period. It has since been expanded to determine how Federal funding is disbursed and to provide statistical information, but its primary purpose remains the same - how many people are living where. Anything you add to it that can skew that information is a problem. |
