“AS PART OF THE PROMOTIONAL EFFORT to get Americans to participate in the Census, the Census Bureau has been handing out various tchotchkes -- coffee mugs, notebooks, insulated lunch bags, fans etc. -- with the department logo on them. The Orange County Register asked the Census Bureau how much they were spending on these items and was told to buzz off.”

We may not know how much the census bureau is wasting on “tchotchkes” but we do have some idea of how much waste there is.