runaway census cost is frightening preview of true Obamacare price tag

To keep this analysis at its most simple

Yes. Simple.

I'm so disappointed McSpocky that healthcare reform really did NOT happen. We simply put into place Healthcare INSURANCE reform, putting some rules and regulation to the insurance companies to abide by.

I worked the census and you are correct in saying a lot of people just didn't fill out the census. That work lasted 4 weeks and it's over for me as I am sure for other census workers too. And as far as I am concerned the count is as corrupted as the government.

If people had only just sent in the forms like they were supposed to, then there would not have been any rising costs.

It did not help matters when a sitting US Representative encouraged people to not fill out the census. Or the parroting conservative news media:

•During a June 25 interview with Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) on his Fox News show, Glenn Beck stated that "there's a lot of people that are concerned" with the census "because they don't want to fill it out. They're not comfortable with ACORN members coming to find out all this information. They don't want to give the government all this kind of information." After noting the fine for failure to fill out census forms and stating that no one had ever received that fine, he asked Bachmann, "What are the odds that they are going to impose that?" He later added that he's "considered not filling it out."

•On the June 24 edition of Fox News' Glenn Beck, guest host Judge Andrew Napolitano stated that "when people ask me what the law is, what do they have to tell the census taker, I tell them, simply this: how many people live in that house, and nothing else. It's none of the government's business when they were born, what their race is, or what they earn." Responding to Rep. Jason Chaffetz's (R-UT) description of legislation he intends to introduce to have postal workers conduct the 2010 census, Napolitano stated, "I hope this passes, because it's going to save us a lot of money. And for all of its faults in the post office, it's certainly a lot more honest than ACORN."
•On the June 22 broadcast of Clear Channel's The War Room with Quinn & Rose, a caller stated that he wouldn't fill out the census because ACORN workers would be involved in "collecting the information." Co-host Rose Tennent stated in response that the caller had made "an excellent point." She went on to note that Bachmann reportedly said that she does not intend to complete the census and stated: "ACORN being recruited by Obama for a mission -- that is so frightening." After listing several questions included in the census, she added that "it's just so intrusive. And you're right. I mean, there's the risk of identity theft and all kinds of things. I'm just -- it scares me to think that these thugs are getting this information from us."

•On the June 19 broadcast of his radio show, G. Gordon Liddy praised Bachmann's refusal to complete the census, stating:
Mrs. Bachmann says she's worried about the involvement of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, in next year's census. Well, good for Mrs. Bachmann. And if they've passed, as apparently they have, a statute saying they can fine you $5,000 if you don't answer questions like, "You got any guns in the house?" and, you know, other intrusive stuff like that, well, I hope that she refuses, and I hope that they charge her, and then I hope she takes that course -- that thing right up to the Supreme Court of the United States and gets this question resolved.

•On June 18, using the headline "What Kind of Info Is ACORN Gathering for Census?" The Fox Nation linked to a June 18 Washington Times article reporting that Bachmann stated "she will not fill out anything more than the number of people in her household" for the 2010 census because "the questions have become 'very intricate, very personal' " and because "she feared ACORN."
•In a May 26 New York Post column headlined "Uncle Sam's way-too-nosy-survey," former Bush administration speechwriter Meghan Clyne wrote that the ACS supplement is "forcing Americans to disclose sensitive information about their finances, health and lifestyles." Clyne added that while completing the census is mandatory, "[t]he good news is that I called the help number on my form and a Census representative finally conceded that the government was unlikely to pursue punishment if I didn't respond, saying it would be 'a waste of time and money.' Maybe that's enough to risk telling the government what to do with its survey."

•In an interview with Clyne on the May 22 edition of Fox News show, Beck called the questions included in the ACS "unconstitutional," stating, "I mean, I'll tell you how many people live in my house. I don't think I need to tell you this. This is unconstitutional; I don't think I need to tell you all of this."

•On the May 20 edition of his radio show, Neal Boortz told a caller, "I received a census form the other day asking me a whole bunch of questions about my small business. I threw it in the trash. I'm not going to answer it. None of their damn business." He later added that "the federal government and the state government, they have a legitimate reason for knowing how many people live where. They have no legitimate reason for knowing anything else. The rest of the information is -- most of the rest of the information is designed to help the government steal from you in order to pass off your property to the moochers. They're looters."

So I really have to laugh when the conservatives complain that the census to too expensive ... they made it that way!

I'm so disappointed that healthcare reform really did NOT happen.

Bingo, but nobody really realizes it. The government hasn't done anything to health care, aren't going to be in charge of any of it - but the sky is still falling to some.