Liberal Talk Radio

You mean this is the worst you can come up with? There must be some sort of Bush-opinion-columnator that automatically generates this stuff:

The Bush administration has tried repeatedly to kill or shortchange government surveys. Motivated in part by pound foolishness, but also by a disdain for information that might upset partisan or ideological agendas, the attempts have had mixed results. Taken together, however, they amount to an assault on reliable data that’s necessary to judge the effectiveness of existing government programs and the need for new ones.

The most recent example of this siege is in President Bush’s latest budget, a proposal to eliminate the American Time Use Survey, the only government survey that tracks how Americans spend their time outside work. Initiated in 2003, the survey serves as a gauge of the usefulness of government policies, as well as a tool for identifying needs and challenges that confront both government and business.

How much time do people spend commuting, and what does that tell us about the need for transportation alternatives or flexible work schedules?

. . .

The American Time Use Survey is smart and, and at $4.3 million a year, affordable. Getting rid of it would be a step backward. In the days and weeks to come, as committees in Congress weigh in on the next budget, funding for the survey must be restored.