Monday, February 9, 2009

Obama Decision to Move Census to White House

I'm starting to feel like I'm reading history books. Obama's latest move is to take the U.S. Census to the White House.

Moving the Census to the White House "It takes something that is supposedly apolitical like the census, and gives it to a guy who is infamously political," Bishop said of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who would be tasked with overseeing the census at the White House.

The U.S. census -- a counting of the U.S. population -- is conducted every 10 years by the Commerce Department. Its results determine the decennial redrawing of congressional districts

As a matter of impact, the census has tremendous political significance. Political parties are always eager to have a hand in redrawing districts so that they can maximize their own party's clout while minimizing the opposition, often through gerrymandering."

Click here to view the entire article.

Why do so many people NOT have a problem with this?!? Why do people honestly feel it is ok to give all the power to one party? When that happens, we as a people lose our voice. Our voice is then "decided" for us--often times without factoring in what is important to us. Often times, the only consideration is what pet group did what for what politician...

6 comments:

Ted said...

Now, here's an example of chutzpah: The Republicans didn't get their act together enough to challenge Obama for not being constitutionally qualified to be President as an Article 2 "natural born citizen" so Obama's White House steals the census from the Commerce Department against the specific instructions of the constitution itself -- "actual enumeration" under Article 1.

Unknown said...

Good catch, Ted. Here's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

The "actual enumeration" clause:

"The actual Enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct." U.S. Constitution, Art. I, sec. 2.

The President is not constitutionally empowered to "direct" the "manner" of conducting the Census -- Congress is.

Unknown said...

Does anyone know anything about the enabling legislation that moved the census to Commerce?

Southern Girl said...

who needs legislation or a Constitution anymore? Obama said it himself, "I won." We're done. He's a creepy, creepy guy.

Anonymous said...

Title 13 of the US Code contains the Census provisions. Chapter 1, subchapter 1, section 4 describes the responsibilities of the Secretary (Of Commerce), not those of the President. Congress may, if it wishes, delegate that authority to others, but I believe there would be serious constitutional concerns about ceding that responsibility for "enumeration" to the President.

Unknown said...

I guess Senator Gregg had a problem with tinkering with the census. Had he taken the appointment to Commerce, I'm not certain whether he's be a hen or a fox in the henhouse.

It took cajones to withdraw.