WASHINGTON, D.C. – The President is doubling down on his decision to fire the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after the release of an unfavorable jobs report. The BLS is an independent agency. They’re tasked with collecting and analyzing labor and economic data independently, without direct control from the Labor Department or the executive branch.
On Monday, President Donald Trump once again claimed on social media that last week’s jobs report was “rigged” and that the previous months’ revisions had been “CONCOCTED in order to make a great Republican Success look less stellar!!!”
There are concerns that the president fired the commissioner because he didn’t like the July jobs data. The President will now get a chance to fill that position. Some members in his own party have even expressed concern about the firing.
“If the President is firing the statistician because the numbers are unreliable now, that would be good to know,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R- WY). “But if the President is firing the statistician because he doesn’t like the numbers, but they are accurate, then that’s a problem.”
The President will now get to nominate someone to fill that position. Casey Burgat, an associate professor and director of legislative affairs at George Washington University, explains the importance of agencies like the BLS to remain independent:
“You don’t want them subject to the one view that matters in his own eyes, the view of the president,” said Burgat. “You don’t want them subject or manipulating information or only sharing good news or are afraid to report bad news or afraid to make decisions they know are in the best interests of not only their agency but the American people.”
Burgat adds keeping the agencies’ work independent keeps the government accountable.
“You want information to stand on its own to be right or wrong and not subject to the partisan lens that we think everything now regarding our politics,” said Burgat. “That’s why they set these agencies up as independent, so you’re not worried about someone saying: ‘don’t like it get rid of it’ or ‘change it’ or as we’re about to see with future jobs reports likely, they’re going to have to think about how they’re telling the president rather than just telling the president. Fearful of how it may be interpreted and if their jobs are on the line and that’s exactly how it’s not supposed to work.”
Keeping so-called “yes men” around the White House could have it’s consequences.
“Then you only get one side of the story,” said Burgat. “Even worse, that story may not be true and even more fundamentally this is the conversation we’re having in this instance is that we’ve had growing distrust in all our institutions and that’s been on purpose too. They’ve weaponized them to say ‘don’t trust them, only trust me’ and now if we start filtering that type of literal economic jobs or projections or employment data then what does it matter anymore? Then anyone can just warp what they hear to what’s favorable, what they want to hear and if it not, they can just discard it and say it’s the work of the other party it’s the work of the deep state. So then we are not even agreeing on the fundamental aspects of what two plus two equals four anymore and that’s dangerous for not only how you run a country obviously but what information the Commander-in-Chief is receiving to make the most complicated decisions he has when there’s no good options and now he’s only working off one very favorable side of the data. It creates an incentive structure where you’re not really recognizing the entire world or the entire possibility of what could be and that’s bad for a President to make decisions under.”
As for the jobs report itself, the reports become more accurate in the months following an initial report is filed after more data comes in. It’s common for revisions to be made.
