To me the issue isn't the efficacy or aim of these programs. Whether you agree with them or their goals, or don't, for whatever reason, the issue is the propriety of what is supposed to be a professional society (ASA) acting like a political lobbying organization on behalf of programs completely unrelated to Statistics.
The argument made by those in leadership (Ron Wasserstein and David Morganstein) is that we make our voice louder by joining with hundreds of organizations (including CODEPINK, the Pennsylvania Council of Churches, the National Fair Housing Alliance to mention a very few) to advocate for thousands of programs (NSA, IRS, subsides for agriculture, food stamps, subsidies for McDonald's to advertise overseas to name a very few), including a few scientific research programs. The overwhelming lion's share of these programs have nothing at all to do with scientific research or science education.
Notwithstanding what I believe is the impropriety of collecting our dues and representing opinions to Congress as the opinions of all of us, I believe we simply label ourselves as one of a thousand political lobbying organizations, and diminish our integrity and therefore our voice. If we make a statistical statement about a program, it will be taken in an entirely political context and viewed through a political rather than scientific lens.
Please e-mail Ron and David and express your views. They need to hear from us.
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Terry Meyer
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-27-2015 07:28
From: Robert Lovell
Subject: political positions taken by ASA
As a statistician working for the Michigan Dept of Social Services for 25 years (now retired) I saw plenty of "waste, fraud and abuse". In very few cases was it due to government workers seeking to benefit themselves. Much, much more often it is due to failing to adequately staff the agencies responsible for managing programs. Some waste is not worth stopping, but generally the problem is political opposition to expanding the government workforce to meet the need. So, while I am not sure that ASA should be in this area at all, I am sure that opposing increased staffing for agencies with documented waste, fraud and abuse is a self-defeating position. Staffing appropriations are made in line items separate from benefit appropriations, and paying attention to this is important. Improvements in government statistics, ASA's reason for joining the debate, will come out of staffing improvements.
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Robert Lovell
Retired
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