Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Top Census Officials Leaving to Find those 500,000 Uninsureds?

The top two officials of the U.S. Census Department announced their leaving amid conflicts with senior members of the Bush administration. Management difference and loss of trust were mentioned by the two men bowing out.

Given the President’s disdain for truth and his twisting of words to misrepresent, can numbers be far behind? A revision dropped a half million people from the ranks of the uninsured just months ago. The 2004 45.8 million without health insurance became 45.3 with the change of an estimating formula. Does anyone believe this given both business long term trend of shedding their insured rolls? Government jumped on that same bandwagon the last year.

Unemployment has now become a fictional number, this point driven home by reports of unemployed soldiers returning from Iraq. Nearly twice as many young veterans are without work compared to the private sector, 15.6% vs. 8.7%. The rationale given to justify this number is veterans actually file for unemployment with others don’t. So the number presented as people without work in the U.S. is actually the number of filers for unemployment insurance benefits.

Will the Census chiefs file for unemployment? Who will the President’s men hire to get them the numbers they need to get re-elected?

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