One of President Obama’s first acts after his inauguration in January 2009 was to wrest control of the 2010 Census from the Commerce Department and to place it under the care and control of the White House.

The Republicans were none too pleased.  From a Feb. 6, 2009 House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform press release, ranking member Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Information Policy, Census, and National Archives Subcommittee ranking member Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) penned a letter to Barack Obama:

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has direct legislative jurisdiction and oversight over the Census, and as such we are shocked and dismayed at this morning’s press reports of the blatant partisan and political maneuvers your Administration is currently undertaking with regards to the Census Bureau.^[1] Requiring the Census Director to report directly to the White House and circumventing the Secretary of Commerce is both outrageous and unprecedented.

Requiring the Census Director to report directly to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is a shamefully transparent attempt by your Administration to politicize the Census Bureau and manipulate the 2010 Census… By circumventing the Secretary of Commerce’s oversight of the Census Bureau and handing it directly to a political operative such as Mr. Emanuel, you are severely jeopardizing the fairness and accuracy of the 2010 Census… Moreover, requiring the Census Director to report directly to the White House and placing responsibility for administration of the Bureau outside the Department of Commerce may even violate Federal law.  According to Title 13 of the U.S. Code, the Bureau is to be administered “within, and under the jurisdiction of, the Department of Commerce.”

The temptation to skew Census numbers is all but irresistible.  Those numbers affect the drawing of congressional districts and the makeup of the Electoral College.  Skewing Census numbers can result in the allocation of federal funds being disproportionately steered by a political party, and the Democrats seem to have an inordinate fondness for skewing numbers:

Critics note that the method of counting can skew the census. Democrats have long advocated using mathematical estimates, a practice known as "sampling," to count urban residents and immigrants. Republicans say the Constitution requires a physical head count, which entails going door-to-door.

Is President Trump abusing his executive authority, or is he merely trying to counterbalance President Obama’s abuse of his executive authority?

The impact of a presidential legacy can be difficult to assess until some time has passed.  Accordingly, Barack Obama does not always get the credit he’s due for the extent to which his transformative eight years as president helped shape the Democrat party into what it is today.

Image: David Stewart via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.