Senseless, Cents-less, Sent Us

About a week ago I wrote and explained that our government was spending an awful lot of money sending out a letter to millions and millions of people telling them they were going to get a census survey in the mail. Soon. Fill it out. Mail it back. Thanks.

Well, it may have been a little longer than that but the point is, it served no purpose. That's the same as you getting a letter from your credit card company saying they were going to be sending out your credit card bill in a week or so. Pay the bill. Thanks.

Today I discovered the cost of that advance notice that a survey was coming. It was mailed to about 10 million addresses at a cost of $85-million....

Yes, almost 71 cents per address. For no conceivable common sense reason.

Of course these figures are provided by the Census Bureau themselves so I'm not sure how accurate they are, and if they could be a tad on the low side. Anytime a government agency admits how much it spent or a project costs, I'd venture to say they report on the low side.

Oh, and they gave a reason for the advance notices being sent: It would increase the response by 6 to 12 percentage points, resulting in a savings of more than $500 million.

See, that's another thing the government does. When they get caught wasting money they always explain how it will actually be saving taxpayers money. How can they possibly explain the equation explaining how they came up with the 6-12 percent figure? And also, why will it save $500 million? Why not 2-8 percent and $350 million? Or 10-16 percent and $625 million?

You get the point. They wasted money.

It got noticed by everyone, liberals and conservatives. They were red-faced. They made up figures. They lied.






Que sera, sera.