On Friday, President Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner Erika McEntarfer “after the bureau released monthly jobs data showing surprisingly weak hiring in July and large downward revisions to job growth in the previous two months.”
It’s been great to see ongoing, headline coverage of this – after all, it is a story about government statistics. But, as reports point out, businesses and governments around the world depend on reliable BLS data (I’ve used it myself in past jobs). Tampering with it in this way damages confidence in this data, in government data more broadly, and even the government itself, and recklessly introduces uncertainty into the economy.
A few points to highlight:
First, Americans often think about government in terms of policy: Republicans come in and do what they want, then Democrats come in and do what they want, and policy flips back and forth. But government is also about competence and capacity, which are built up over generations and across parties. Everyone should want trustworthy, capable public institutions, whatever (or how little) you want to do with them. This administration is fundamentally different than the ones that came before, from both parties, because it’s not only enacting its policy but systematically eating away at our public capacity. We can undo some policies quickly, but it will take years to rebuild capacity.
Second, this was premeditated. Earlier this year, the administration changed civil service regulations to put more senior civil servants - including McEntarfer - in a category that the President could easily fire. This wasn’t a spontaneous act by the President; this was the execution of a plan.
Third, this happened entirely within the executive branch. The administration changed the rules and fired the commissioner. They didn’t need Congress to do it.
Fourth, this plan carried over across a Democratic administration. The first Trump Administration made a similar rule change, but it was reversed when the Biden Administration reinstated civil service protections. Once they got back in office, they picked up where they’d left off.
Fifth, this is just one of dozens, maybe hundreds, of things they’re doing to break our public institutions.
Resistance can’t stop this kind of damage. We have to regain the White House and Congress to end the destruction and start the work of rebuilding. And, we need a large enough majority and mandate that it won’t all get undone a few years later.
So: we have to win.