The New York Times editorializes in favor of a proposal to give the Census greater autonomy. It sounds like a generally good idea, but of course a lot depends on exactly how the proposal is written, which one cannot glean from the editorial.
But despite its praise for the bipartisanship of the proposal, the NYT simply can’t help trying to score partisan points. They blame the Census’s woes on some unspecified problem during the Bush administration in 2006 (“the Bush administration’s lack of support for the census”, whatever that means).
On the other hand, they curiously forget the Obama administration’s recent, illegal effort to take over the Census and run it out of the White House. (Eventually the White House had to abandon the scheme.) That seems a bit more relevant to the idea of an independent census.
Internet Scofflaw 