It's a plot to steal our precious bodily fluids. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Sigh. Yesterday, the Republican-controlled House voted to abolish the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which collects detailed, annual data on municipalities’ social, economic and educational characteristics. The ACS was established in the 1990s, but it’s the successor to the Census “long form” which has been around for over 200 years.
Republicans complain that the ACS is “intrusive.” They don’t want the federal government asking how many toilets you have or how long it takes you to get to work. But if, for example, you want to answer questions like “how do commute times affect business location decisions,” which might inform decisions about what infrastructure to invest in, a survey like that is pretty useful.
Republicans think they’re striking a blow for federalism here, but they’re really doing the opposite. In order for state and local governments to serve as “laboratories of democracy,” we need comparable performance data across jurisdictions. Without ACS, it would be a lot harder to figure out what local policies are working.
AEI’s Andrew Biggs made this point in his testimony in favor of the ACS earlier this year:
Third, and most importantly, without good data policymakers are essentially flying blind, lacking solid knowledge of the Americans they are seeking to assist. We already suffer too much from what might be referred to as “policymaking by anecdote,” where lawmakers seek to pass legislation before sufficiently examining the severity – or sometimes even the existence – of a perceived problem. Reducing the quantity and quality of data available to policymakers, analysts and researchers threatens to exacerbate this problem.
The problem with Andrew’s argument is that it assumes congressional Republicans want accurate data to inform their policymaking. If you have committed yourself to claims that can be disproved with data, like “inflation is high,” then good economic data do not serve your interests.
