Census threat: $5,000 fines U.S. congressman slams 'Big Brother' questions (OT)

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Census

threat: $5,000 fines U.S.

congressman slams 'Big Brother' questions By

Jerome R. Corsi, March 16, 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rep. Ted

Poe, R-Texas

 

 

 

 

 

How many people live in your home? Are any of them Hispanic? Are the

people who live in your home citizens? How big is your home? Do you

have difficulty making decisions or climbing stairs? How much do you

pay for your sewage system? Are you married What's your rent or

mortgage payment? Do you own an

automobile? Are you on food stamps? How much money do you make?

These are just a sample of the highly detailed and personal

questions asked in the mandatory American

Community Survey the U.S. Census Bureau will send to a sample of

some 3 million U.S. households in addition to the 2010 Census.

Refusing to answer the questions or answering them incorrectly will

subject citizens to hefty fines.

The U.S. Census website for the American Community Survey warns that

under Title 13 of the U.S. Code, Section 221, anyone who refuses to

answer the 11-page 48-question survey, or who answers the questions

with false information, will be subject to a possible $5,000 fine.

As WND reported

last year, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, introduced H.R. 3131

to make participation in the extended ACS survey voluntary.

In an e-mail to WND, Poe repeated his charge that the American

Community Survey amounts to an Obama administration attempt to create a

"government dossier on American citizens."

Unable to move the resolution through a Democratic Party-controlled

House of Representatives, Poe continues to argue that the law should be

changed to make the American Community Survey voluntary.

"The federal government has a constitutional duty to count the

number of people in the United States every 10 years," Poe told WND.

"But the federal government has no business keeping a comprehensive

personal profile on every American citizen.

"The government can take this detailed information about each person

who answers the American Community Survey and use that information for

its own purposes," he said. "This is Big Brother at its worst. To me,

it's an invasion of privacy by the federal government all in the name

of taking care of us."

WND has consistently found the Census Department difficult to reach

for comment. No media phone number or contact person is published on

the home page of the U.S. Census Bureau. By typing, "news" into the

Census Bureau homepage search engine, a page displays the phone number

301-763-3030 as the bureau's Public Information Office. Dialing that

number, WND received a recording that directed news reporters to dial

yet another number, 301-763-3691. Dialing that number, WND encountered

voice mail.

After leaving a request for a call on the voice mail, the Census

Bureau Public Information Office neglected to return the call.

Among the questions asked on the 11-page American Community Survey

are:

 

The first section of the ACS asks for full name of each person

living in the household, the total number of people, how the people are

related to each other, the date of birth, sex and race of each person

and whether any are of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin.

 

The second section surveys housing, asking whether the household

is a mobile home, a one-family detached home, a one-family home

attached to one or more houses, an apartment or a boat, RV or van.

 

Then the ACS asks what year the building was built, when "Person

No. 1" in the housing section moved into the home; the size of land the

home is on; what agricultural products were sold from the property in

the last 12 months; whether the property was used as a business; how

many separate rooms are in the house; whether the house has hot and

cold running water; whether the house has a flush toilet, a shower or

bathtub, a sink with a faucet, a stove or range, a refrigerator and a

telephone; how many cars, vans and trucks are kept at the property; and

what fuel is most used at the property gas, electricity, fuel oil or

kerosene, coal or coke, wood, solar energy, or "other."

 

Further, the housing section in the ACS asks what was last

month's bill for energy, what was the cost of water and sewage for the

housing unit in the last year, whether anyone in the household received

food stamps in the last year, the monthly rental or mortgage cost of

the unit, an estimate of the resale value of the housing unit, the

unit's annual property taxes and the annual cost of fire,

hazard and flood insurance on the property.

 

The ACS wants to know if Person No. 1 in the household is a

citizen, if the person was born in the U.S. or when the person came to

the U.S.; whether the person had attended college in the last three

years and what is the highest level of education the person has

completed; the person's ancestry or ethnic origin; whether the person

speaks a language other than English at home, and if yes, what

language; whether the person lived in this housing unit or an apartment

a year ago; whether the person is covered by health insurance, and if

yes, by what type of health insurance.

 

Next, Person No. 1 must answer if he/she is deaf or has

difficulty hearing; if the person is blind or has serious difficulty

seeing even when wearing glasses; if the person has difficulty

concentrating, remembering or making decisions because of a physical,

mental or emotional condition; whether the person has serious

difficulty walking or climbing stairs; whether the person has

difficulty bathing or dressing; whether the person has difficulty doing

errands alone such as visiting a doctor's office or shopping because of

a physical, mental, or emotional condition; what is the person's

marital status; whether the person has given birth to any children in

the past 12 months; whether the person has any grandchildren under the

age of 18 in the house or apartment; whether the person has ever served

on active duty in the U.S. armed forces; whether the person has a VA

service-connected disability rating, and if yes, what percentage is the

VA disability rating.

 

The ACS also asks whether Person No. 1 worked last week for pay;

at what address, town, city and country did the person work last week;

how did the person get to work and if by car, bus, railroad, taxi,

motorcycle, bicycle or on foot; whether the person, if unemployed, has

been actively looking for work in the past four weeks; whether the

person, if unemployed, was available to start work if offered a job or

recalled to work in the past week; and how many weeks the person worked

in the past year and how many hours per week.

 

Finally, Person No. 1 must disclose whether his or her most

recent work was for a private for-profit company, a private

not-for-profit, a local government, a state government or the federal

government, or whether the person was self employed in their own

incorporated or not-incorporated business, or whether the person worked

without pay in a family business or on the family farm; the name of the

employer; the type of business; whether the business was manufacturing,

wholesale trade, retail trade; or other; the

exact job description of the person and his or her most important

duties; his or her income over the past 12 months and the amount of

that income that came from wages, salary, commission, bonuses or tips;

whether the person received any Social Security or Railroad Retirement benefits,

or any other type of public assistance in the past 12 months; and the

person's entire income over the past 12 months, both from employment or

public welfare sources.

 

The American Community Survey is available

as a .pdf file in English or Spanish on the Census Bureau's website.

 

In 2007

during work on the American Community Survey portion of the Census

Bureau's responsibilities, spokesman Clyve Richmond told WND, "The

Census Bureau has never prosecuted anybody. We try to work with people

and explain how useful the information is."

The Associated Press reported this week the Census Bureau "rarely"

seeks fines for failing to answer.