It's not just about the War in Iraq. Or corruption. It's about everything we need to know in order to make informed decisions. It's about no compassion for the least among us, the poor, the disenfranchised. If we don't know, the "thinking" goes, there is no problem.

Two years ago almost to the day, the Bush administration decided it would be better were we not to know about how much people were really being paid:

BLS plans to discontinue collecting data on:

1. what women workers are paid, because, it says, there is little interest in this issue.

2. what hours "Production or nonsupervisory worker" work and what they are paid.
. . .
BLS also says it needs to stop collecting this data so it has the money to collect other data. Here are the new data it intends to collect:

1. New data on the hours and regular earnings of all employees. All means that the data will include data from the most highly paid CEOs.

2. New data on total earnings - both regular and irregular pay - for all employees.

By adding in CEO pay and then using the average of all pay received, it would look as if the average American worker was doing very, very well, when in fact this was not the truth. And not collecting data on women's pay and the hours being worked would make it impossible to track overwork and low pay. All these are issues that have been of great concern.

That campaign was stopped because of strong protest.

The New Target

But the beat goes on. This past February, the Bush Administration again proposed getting rid of the Census Bureau proposed survey of income and program participation (SIPP).

President Bush’s proposed budget for fiscal 2007, which begins October 2006, includes a Commerce Department plan to eliminate the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The proposal marks at least the third White House attempt in as many years to do away with federal data collection on politically prickly economic issues. Founded in 1984, the Census Bureau survey follows American families for a number of years and monitors their use of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Social Security, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, child care, and other health, social service, and education programs.

Since 1984, the SIPP has collected data on the economic wellbeing and the impact of federal benefit programs, by regularly tracking a large sample of Americans households. Having this sort of longitudinal data makes it possible to monitor how federal programs are performing and whether changes need to be made.

Social-science researchers, advocacy organizations, and policymakers rely upon the SIPP for detailed information on the economic well-being of people and families that use social programs over time. The SIPP allows for a real evaluation of programs like Social Security, unemployment insurance, and food stamps, and of our policies and priorities around poverty, retirement, and work and family issues. The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) is leading the fight to save the SIPP.

link

The 2006 Bush effort to get rid of this information foundered when Congress appropriated money to continue funding the SIPP.

Never daunted, it tried again this year, and again met strong and broad opposition. [pdf]

For good policy, we need good data

After a year of calls and letters, in January, Congress secured funding for the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) for 2007. Unfortunately, the President's budget for 2008 eliminates funding for the SIPP yet again, and allocates a meager $15.9 million to further develop the Dynamics of Economic Well Being (DEWS), a new survey the Bureau is developing to replace the SIPP. While we applaud the Bureau's effort to develop a more accurate and accessible survey, we believe it would be a great mistake to eliminate the SIPP, our government's only reliable source of longitudinal data on household well-being, before the DEWS has been tested and proven its superiority.

446 researchers from around the country agree! Click here to read our letter to House and Senate appropriators urging them to fully fund the SIPP in 2008.

Then in late May, the Bush Administration said it had reversed its decision to eliminate the program.

link

and the Subterfuge . . .

Sounded too good to be true?

Of course. When has this Admnistration really paid attention to scientists or people who actually know something?

Two weeks ago, the Bush Administration reversed course and decided not to eliminate the SIPP; however, it has not requested any additional funding to execute it. With the subcommittees vote, the Census Bureau could run the full program if this funding is approved by the House and Senate.

link

So, sure they won't oppose it or try to get rid of it . . . they just won't fund it.

Contact to protest may be found via this link at CEPR - along with more information.

• SIPP,
• census,
• poverty,
• welfare