Wanna make an easy three hundred bucks?

Go to work for the government:

WASHINGTON – The Census Bureau wasted millions of dollars in preparation for its 2010 population count, including thousands of temporary employees who picked up $300 checks without performing work and others who overbilled for travel costs.

Federal investigators caution the excessive charges could multiply once the $15 billion headcount begins in earnest next month unless the agency imposes tighter spending controls, according to excerpts of a forthcoming audit obtained by The Associated Press.

Right. So. Who is it who wants to trust these people with even more taxpayer money? Seriously, is there anybody left?

Oh, right. Democrats.

Oddly enough, those same federal investigators saw no problem with the Census Bureau’s ad campaign, which includes TV commercials that premeired during the Superbowl, at something like $2.5 million a pop.

In their favor, the commercials are pretty funny:

But… that’s one of those commercials that kind of hides its product. Half the people who’ve seen it a half-dozen times aren’t sure what it was for.

Really, the Bureau would have been better off with the occasional 5-second blurb saying: watch your mail for the U.S. census, fill it out and send it back! It’s be more effective, probably, and a whole lot cheaper.

Genius!