Good Sense and Critical Intelligence

Following up on my post below, here's how our elected leaders view social science:

“We’re spending $70 per person to fill out [The American Community Survey]. That’s just not cost effective,” [Rep. Daniel Webster] continued, “especially since in the end this is not a scientific survey. It’s a random survey.”

I hope you can spot the egregious error at the end.

We've been doing the American Community Survey since 1850, and it is used to learn about the demography and needs of the citizenry as a way to guide spending programs in a more sensible way:

It is the largest (and only) data set of its kind and is used across the federal government in formulas that determine how much funding states and communities get for things like education and public health.

The House of Representatives has already voted to abolish it.

Via all the poli sci grad students in my Facebook feed.