Hi John,

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has been in the news a lot lately: first, there was a weak jobs report for July. Then, President Trump fired the commissioner of the BLS due to that jobs report. The commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, was confirmed in January 2024 by a bipartisan 86-8 Senate vote, including votes from JD Vance and Marco Rubio.

But why is the BLS is so important? What does it matter if the president fires a bureaucrat? 

Reliable data is critical for a functioning economy. By firing those who present him with information he doesn't like, Trump is incentivizing those who work for the federal government to paint a rosy picture, not an accurate one. And that ultimately hurts us all, when we no longer have information we can trust. 

Getting rid of the messenger of bad news isn't how a functioning government works. We deserve better. This isn’t the change we needed.