The Commerce Department and Census Bureau declared Tuesday that an amendment by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., to require the 2010 census to ask all persons their citizenship and immigration status would scuttle any chance that the census could be done on time and would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Scott Threlkeld/The Times-PicayuneU.S. Sen. David Vitter portrays his amendment as an attempt to keep Louisiana from losing one of its seven congressional districts in the coming reapportionment.The warning came even as the Senate Democratic leadership sought to head off a vote on the Vitter amendment to the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill. An effort by the leadership to invoke cloture failed Tuesday evening, with the fight over whether to vote on the Vitter amendment, which he co-sponsored with Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, expected to resume today.

Vitter portrays his amendment as a last-ditch effort to protect the political power of Louisiana and other states with relatively small populations of people who are either not citizens or are not legal residents in the United States, and keep Louisiana from losing one of its seven congressional districts in the coming reapportionment.

The decennial census, required by the Constitution to count all "persons," is used for the purposes of congressional apportionment and legislative redistricting. The result is that places with more people -- regardless of their status -- get more representation.

Or as Vitter put it in floor debate on his amendment last week, "States that have large populations of illegals would be rewarded for that. Other states, including my home state of Louisiana, would be penalized."

Vitter said that in addition to Louisiana, the states of Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and South Carolina "would lose out." He challenged the senators from those states, "if you vote against this amendment, then you are voting against the interests of your state."

By far the biggest winner under the existing system is California, followed by Texas, New York and Florida.

But opponents of the measure described it as ill-advised, and in its intent, both unconstitutional and discriminatory.

The Census Bureau, and the Commerce Department of which it is a part, said that 425 million of the 600 million census forms already had been printed, and that even adding an addenda sheet with the Vitter question also would require rewriting software code, reprogramming scanners and retraining census workers to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

but we're offsetting the cost with all the money acorn won't be embezzeling.

amirite?!

I dont know how any human with a brain could read that article and then label it "democrats vow to count illegals in the 2010 census". That's not what it says. It's not even close to what it says. 85, I would think about trying for a headline writing job at Fox News. You'll fit right in.

NO! WE'RE COUNTING PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Let's see Commerce Dept - run by Democratic appointee and hmm let's see...The Census Beauru Chief(democrat), who has to to work closely with the White House (democrat)& Axelord (democrat) & Emanuel(democrat)... Shoot down an admendment "to ask all persons their citizenship and immigration status"

Don't worry - they wouldn't dream of politicizing the census




Illegal aliens should not be counted in the census. Their presence here is illegal and must not be used to direct federal dollars to the areas in which they serve as illegal squatters

It's ok I am sure you just don't understand what the word vow means. Because then you would understand the difference between a Democratic politician openly declaring that illegal aliens should be counted in the census and what was in that article.

Also if you have any evidence that what the Commerce Dept. said about the cost of changing the census forms at such a late date is untrue please feel free to present it at any time.

Really - Your going to try and play semantics? Give me a break - you know exactly what is going on here.. Don't try and pretend that this isn't a power grab

They just happend to not print a question about your legal status on the form? They forgot? it was a oversite?


So, since when did Chairman Maobama et al worry about spending hundreds of millions of dollars?
They blew over a trillion dollars last year. Hundreds of millions is a drop in the bucket for these democrats.

oh.

love the idea that you are mad they are (according to you) blowing trillions.....and now mad that they wont spend hundreds of millions more on the census. we want fiscal responsibility.....but not right now for this thing!

Let's see Commerce Dept - run by Democratic appointee and hmm let's see...The Census Beauru Chief(democrat), who has to to work closely with the White House (democrat)& Axelord (democrat) & Emanuel(democrat)... Shoot down an admendment "to ask all persons their citizenship and immigration status"

Don't worry - they wouldn't dream of politicizing the census

So it's been ten years since the last census. Most of those years were under GW and with full Republican control of Congress. Me thinks that would have been a better time to put it up for vote than now.

From reading the last sentence, I have no doubts this would cost a ton of money to enact at this late date.

So I'm sure you were posting about how wrong it was for GW's minions to politicize the Justice Department when they basically said no to every Democrat or Non-Christian who applied for any position right?

And again, if this was so important, GW and the Republicans had six years where they controlled Congress to enact some law to not count illegals. What happened?

Thanks for making my point... The democrats have never wanted fiscal reponsibility, except for when it comes in handy in this instance... you guys are a joke

Yet, Dems have no problem spending a shyton when it's something they think is right...I would say counting non-citizens in a census that will, among other things, determine House of Representatives count for each state is worth the extra time and money.

This is pretty standard by statists....get everyone to vote, knowing that those who are a lock to vote for them certainly won't be running to take their seat of power in Washington!

The Census Bureau, and the Commerce Department of which it is a part, said that 425 million of the 600 million census forms already had been printed, and that even adding an addenda sheet with the Vitter question also would require rewriting software code, reprogramming scanners and retraining census workers to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

NO! WE'RE COUNTING PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

let's just go ahead and stop discussing fiscal responsibility, because clearly no one cares about that regardless of circumstance.

So it's been ten years since the last census. Most of those years were under GW and with full Republican control of Congress. Me thinks that would have been a better time to put it up for vote than now.

From reading the last sentence, I have no doubts this would cost a ton of money to enact at this late date.

NO! WE'RE COUNTING PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Not only illegals, Im sure alot of dead people also.

huh?
the system is utterly borked and I see a total headcount and immediate streamlining of the naturalization process as a good thing.

This explains all the ghost hunting shows on television. It's obviously training for census takers.

...

the fuck are you even talking about

who is suggesting we screw people who want to do things legally

85SUITED'S SOLUTION:

because we had a broken system in place at one point in time, EVERYONE should be punished for the sake of those who were wronged

please, just quit posting here.

fucking reread what I said at the outset you worthless sack of shit

absolutely fucking retarded.

I've made it clear that I think it's unacceptable for the US to have a huge swath of human beings inside its borders who don't exist as far as the government's concerned. Document who we have. Make it simple for non-criminals to gain citizenship.

Kill the incentive to be here illegally and forget this waiting list bullshit.

what part of my posts in this thread made you think we didn't?

I've made it clear that I think it's unacceptable for the US to have a huge swath of human beings inside its borders who don't exist as far as the government's concerned. Document who we have. Make it simple for non-criminals to gain citizenship.

Kill the incentive to be here illegally and forget this waiting list bullshit.

NO! WE'RE COUNTING PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The number of people stupid enough to believe global warming has decreased due to a brutally cold winter. This number is expected to swing back come the end of spring.