The Washington Post is reporting today on millions of wasted dollars at the Census Bureau based on a report released by the Commerce Department’s inspector general. The report says that over 15,000 temporary workers were hired by the Census Bureau and paid $5.6 million dollars for doing either no work at all or working for less than a day. This comes on top of the Bureau having spent $2.5 million for a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl.

Why is this worth talking about other than as another example of how badly the government seems to do just about everything? Because when an amendment proposed by Senator Vitter of Louisiana and Senator Bennett of Utah to ask people whether they are U.S. citizens on Census forms was defeated back in November, one of the reasons given by opponents was that it would be “hugely expensive” to change the forms. In reaction to the IG report, a spokesman for the Census Bureau is quoted as saying that they are “confident” that they now have better “estimate and cost controls in place.” Too bad they aren’t interested in having a “better estimate” and count in place of the actual citizens of the United States.