Have Census Job, Will Travel: Census Wastes Money Shuffling Workers Around the Country
by Stephen Robert MorseYesterday, MyTwoCensus.com reported that 2010 Census workers from Colorado have arrived in New York to assist with operations. Each of these employees is put up at a hotel and paid a per diem rate. (I’ve heard that Hilton Hotels are being used for this purpose — which isn’t surprising since Census Bureau officials are known to stay at Ritz Carleton Hotels while on government business).
Michael C. Cook of the Census Bureau’s Public Information Office wrote to me yesterday, “When we assess that a particular office is either not following procedures or has weak management we often make staffing changes, or even send in experienced managers to help improve operations and re-train the temporary staff.” So the Census Bureau is saying that nobody in New York, a city of 8 million people, is capable of handling these procedures? (Two sources have confirmed to me that one manager from Washington DC is even being put up in New York’s Battery Park in a $4,500 per month apartment on your dime.)
The federal government outlines hotel and per diem rates for New York quite clearly. This means that in addition to their salaries as Census Bureau employees, each individual is spending up to $411 per day, not including flights or other expenditures, merely to eat and sleep in New York.
This isn’t the first time this has occurred. During the address canvassing stage of 2010 Census operations, the Census Bureau sent in workers from North Carolina to assist with efforts in New York. Such wasteful incidents have also occurred with workers from Georgia being sent to Florida and workers from Texas being sent to Louisiana.
With unemployment hovering around 10% and the Census Bureau’s admission that it had four times as many applicants as it did positions open, can this type of spending on transportation, hotels, and per diems be justified? Absolutely not.
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286 Comments
I just can't beleive we have these many numb nuts who voted this clown into office….
It's becuz Census werk is hardd…hav to brung the speshulusts in.
Sorry, couldn't help it.
It's the only way to make the employment numbers go up…hire, fire, rehire….Aren't there laws against this kind of activity? Oh, wait…lawyers make and break the laws!!
There is only one solution. A very effective one at that.
Tar and Feathers.
U hav had uh gud edyoukayshun.
I guess they need the right people and count the citizens in these area a special way so that every one is at least counted once.
The most expensive and wasteful census in US history and we wonder why this crap happens…
The first rule of government accounting has become "justify the next big budget increase" while the rest of America is forced to ask themselves "what can we do without this month"…
Government takes more and more year after year and the people are forced to accept less and less as a result.
Government is NEVER the answer, government IS the problem!
I would think that hiring a private company to do the Census would be a helluva lot cheaper.
I'm not sure but I think they are waiting for the American People to stand and say "It's OK folks, we only do this once every 10 years, go ahead and be creative, we want you to be happy and comfortable while a lot of us are unemployed or underemployed or working jobs we hate. No, no we don't mind at all" Did you know that what a census worker is earning is almost twice what my Officer son is making in California and he fights bad guys 5 days a week. No pity here for the census folks, set them up in a tent in Central Park please, show them the public restrooms.
i want to work for the census, then i want to make sure they are aware of the problems with the census in hawaii, so i can go to hawaii as a expert. i do believe my expertise in examining women on the beach will be of great value to the taxpayer, and my expense report for a beach side villa will be a honest expense. please hire me mr census man, please, my hawaii expertise is essential for a accurate count of beauties on the beaches of hawaii
Where this is very effective, I think a more creative solution would be the Puppy Chow solution. Coat them in a peanut butter/chocolate mixture, roll them in power sugar and send them off to the North Woods or where ever there is a bear population. Bears love Puppy Chow. I'm jus sayin is all.
Hey, who cares?….. It's other peoples money. That's what government does. They are professionals at it.
Me too, why don't we start one. The 3 of us can do much better.
While your theory is attractive….
I'm going to lean towards public humilation over certain death.
Or counted more in some areas. : )
I wonder how many times Mickey & Minnie, Pluto, Buggs Bunny, Elmer Fud, etc… have been counted? By all rights they should be counted as citizens since they have the right vote and have voted in the past.
Sounds good! That means we'll at least have jobs in 10 years. Maybe my bills will wait that long??
Very well put Missy! You hit the nail on the head.
They spend more to justify tax increases and Increase taxes to justify an increase in spending.
There is NO gov office designed to reduce itself in size. They're all designed to grow in size… asnd they have.
Reagan made that same statement when elected and it still holds true today. The people in the govt trying to solve the problem are really the problem. It is time to let the people of the great country do what they do best.
How about just asking the simple question of how many people live in the house. Just that one single question and no others, I bet that there would be an over whelming response to that one question because it is so simple that every one will be able to understand.
How about this. We need to count the American women that visit nude beaches in Europe. I volunteer.
My spell checker just said uh???????????
Former governor John Kitzhaber of Oregon, best known for once recommending that counties and cities spend all of the money in order to prevent there baseline budgets falling is running again! He recently said that one of his first priorities if he is elected again would be to increase taxes in order prevent the state public employee retirement system from defaulting on their debts.
That ought to work out well if he gets back in…
NOT!
It's not about "cheapest". As one who works in sales and handles the federal, state and local governments, as one of my vertical markets, they are a nightmare to deal with. Sure, if they actually wanted to relinquish control of parts of this (which they would never do because the smaller their budget, the less prestige they have) they would go out to bid. However, the bid would not be spec'ed to reveal the lowest and best resource to award this to. They would have all the touchy-feely rules in place to give special favor to minority, women, trans-gender businesses to get the award. There is a certain amount of contracts they have to give to these businesses and generally they are higher priced.
…so long as they provide "valid" proof of citizenship…
If he gets elected that will pole vault Oregon over California as the most asinine suicidal state in the Union. My money is still on California.
Don't hold your breath on California, Oregon voters are stupid as rocks when it comes to seeing a "spending crisis" for what it actually is. When Governor Tom McCall was in office he routinely lowered budgets and the economy ran like a clock even during Jimmy Carter's "mini depression". The people of Oregon have been overrun by people that believe that more government employees means "better government" and that government services are superior to private industry services.
I fully expect Oregon's meltdown to happen first.
Out of control government is precisely why the USA was founded in the first place!
Government is only efficient in only one way, destroying individual freedoms and state sovereignty!
We should start a failure pool. Or a government stupidity exchange where mythical shares of stupid governments could be traded ( including shorted) or we could trade "stupid credits" where we buy the intelligence that other states are not using – like California.
you know, i forgot about all thise beaches in the south pacific too, we might have some americans there. and here i was only thinking hawaii, i really could become a essential worker for the census, i will apply today!
Mine just crashed
"The fool pool.."
Oh Missy…..now, now, now, that would be racial profiling. I thought you knew better than that. : )
Good one! lol
Government is like black mold growing within the walls of a building.
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And these same folks want not only to centralize gov't but build and run nuclear reactors all over the country too?
When did we make a collective DEATH PACT? Did I miss the meeting?
Papers I don't need no stinkin' papers
//sarc//
I am making the assumption that our borders will have been sealed by the next census, but we all know what hgaapens when we assume
5$ CA Feb. 14th 2011
LOL you are far kinder than I am! However if you tar and feather someone, isn't that permanent? Wasn't that a slow agonizing way to die back in the day? A torture if you will
Just an update from spell checker, it will return to checking once it has had its union mandated breaks
When I stayed in Hilton Hotels on travel it cost $66 a night, as GSA had negotiated a gov rate with them for the travel contract. I doubt you could get the motel 6 for much less. Yeah, this travel is stupid, but let's do a little research so that we're indignant about the right things please.
Boy, that is a good guess. Ok I will put $5 on Illinois by February 5, 2011.
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The census work is winding down. The decadal census runs a little over 60% participation. Every worker is told the instances of non participation are very rare.
To keep their employment, I suggest we borrow some purple SEIU buses and ship them to AZ to build some more miles of fences. They can count how many sneaky guys are coming in while working.
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once the protesters at the Spelling Bee are through, spell check will work just fine ….
remember , remember …. Obama MOVED the CENSUS to the WHITEHOUSE for a reason …… Think America Think !!!!
Dam !!!
The dollar is becoming worthless so why not whoop it up on our dime, or $1000 bill?
Some days you just have to wonder if ANY of the DC crew are SANE.
How will they spin the job loss numbers once these temporary jobs end?
I only know two things for sure
A. It will be bushes fault
B. It will have something to do with the oil spill or global warming
Put them in stocks and provide rotten produce from Michelles "garden" at least the tax payers would then be getting something for that waste of PR money.
I get dibs on the cabbages
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Hey, don't worry about it. We've got so much debt now it will never get paid back. So … It's not like we're actually going to pay for this. So go census drones, enjoy it while you can!
the jobs are not going to end. They are going to need to check the numbers in 2011, recheck them in 2012… etc.
What's so outrageous about this crap is that instead of using tax dollars to actually do something to helpful, they spend OUR money to try to fool US into thinking things are just going great! I feel like I woke up in Wonderland.
OK? was that the door of a Port-A-Barry
Fitting
Or "The Twilight-zone"
Payback for 2000-2008 is a b*tch, eh?
I remember how much the right complained about the census back in 2000…. oh wait, no I don't…. hrm, maybe there's something else behind this straw man….
I hear Charlie Rangel has some extra apartments where they can stay.
I guess your assumption is that everyone here is in love with Bush?
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No, really just the noting the fact that in 2004 I sort of had the same exact thought as Sister Mary.
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You have GOT to be kidding me. Damn it, just give America some common folk in office with nothing but common sense. The incessant lies are going to catch up to these parasitic thieves. I just hope there comes a time when I get to see prison time for some of our elected officials. We all know they have commited crimes that us normal folk would be in jail for.
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They have to justify spending $ 14.7 Billion dollars of taxpayer money somehow………………………
It's cost American taxpayers an average of $47.00 to count each person in our country. FORTY SEVEN DOLLARS PER HEAD COUNTED………………………………….
And I'm not sure if that includes illegal aliens, and undocumented foreigners…….
2000 CENSUS COST: $6.5 billion
2010 CENSUS COST: $14.7 billion (at least)
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Budget of census for 2010 $15 billion, population to be counted 308 million, unit cost to count the census $48.70 per person counted. Of course they have to put people up in expensive hotels. They have to spend all that money on something worthwhile.
I'm gunna screem if I heer aboot one more groop protesting. Enuf is enuf all reddy.
Going to eat a peece of froot now ; )
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We've tried that on our pelicans down here-now it's time to use it on some politicians!
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What census? It's all about moving the money around, eh?
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