Freedom Line Blog

The 2010 Census is quickly turning into an extended metaphor for everything that’s wrong with big government. There was a $2.5 million Super Bowl ad buy, a huge spending spree on make-work employees (instead of employing technology that would have been cheaper AND more effective), and — my favorite — a letter letting us know that we’d be receiving a letter.

The Census Bureau’s current “March to the Mailbox” ad may the biggest offense yet. In the 30-second spot, a suburban schlub touts filling out the census as the cure to every policy ill, from education to health care to transportation.

If only.

The census serves a legitimate purpose, but its ad campaign is egregious — and its assertion that more money is all it takes to solve social problems is (a) patently false and (b) a wildly inappropriate use for taxpayer funds. The Census Bureau needs to stay in its lane and save the rest of us some money.