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DonViejo

(60,536 posts) Tue Jul 9, 2019, 11:41 AM Jul 2019

Kellyanne Conway Compares Census Citizenship Question To Asking About Toilets

By Nicole Lafond

July 9, 2019 11:05 am

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway compared the inclusion of a question about a person’s citizenship on the U.S. census to the government asking about the number of running toilets a person has in their home, arguing the toilet question was actually “more intrusive” than citizenship.

“Why can’t we just ask the question the way it was asked for 50 years before the Obama administration yanked it out of there?” she said during a friendly interview with “Fox and Friends” Tuesday morning. “Think of all the questions that nobody complains are included in our U.S. census every 10 years that include a far, far, far smaller number of Americans, or I would argue, are much more intrusive, invasive and expansive. We’re asking about how many toilets are in your house and you don’t want to know who’s using them? It’s absolutely ridiculous and this is why the President is fighting for its inclusion.”

Link to tweet

The plumbing question was last included on the 2000 census (question No. 39) and it has been asked on the American Community Survey — which the Census Bureau gives out to small percentages of the population every year, over the course of the 10 years in between each census — in the past. In 2014, the Census Bureau said it would consider changing the plumbing question on the American Community Survey, along with inquiries about income, disabilities and commuting, as respondents thought they were too invasive. The question was not on the 2016 survey.

The toilet flushing question on the survey produced data about plumbing access across the U.S., which is used by local, state and federal governments to provide funding for housing assistance and other programs that ensure people have access to sanitary housing conditions.

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/kellyanne-conway-toilets-census-citizenship-question