Political Quotes

“there are too many curiosity questions on the Census long form. Right now, on the average, one out of every six citizens of the United States that are sent the census long form are asked questions that take almost 25 minutes to fill out, very personal questions, very intrusive questions. What we have been investigating and looking at is should there really be a $100 fine if you refuse to answer all of those personal, intimate questions. It asks all sorts of information that the government does not need to know, such as the number of rooms in your house, when it was built, where your water and utilities come from, how much they cost, how much you paid for your house, the number of cars, telephones, bathrooms you have, how much insurance you carry on the contents of your home. It asks about your education, the time you leave for work, how you get there, your health, your job. This is simply excessive, and I am suggesting a couple of things. Number one, I suggest that there should not be a $100 fine if you fill out the pertinent information. This was put in our United States Constitution so every 10 years we could have a new count of the number of individuals in the United States so we could reapportion congressional districts for the 435 Members of Congress. It was not the intent that we expand this to allow an administration, a bureaucracy, a Washington group to pursue all kinds of personal information that they might want to know sometime about you.”