Trump Wants His People Counting Jobs

The Director of the White House National Economic Council Defended Trump's (R) Firing of the Official Charged with Compiling Employment Data, saying Sunday that Trump needs Information He can Trust. "The president wants his own people there, so that when we see the numbers, they're more transparent and more reliable," Kevin Hassett (R) said.

Others said that despite Trump's Accusations, it's Not possible for One Person to Change the Numbers gathered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Erika McEntarfer has Posted Her Response to being Fired.

Developments include:

Revisions: Hassett said He was Suspicious of the Bureau's Changes to its Job Numbers. "If I was running the BLS, and I had a number that was a huge, Politically important revision, then I would have a really long report explaining what happened, and we didn't get that," He said. Hassett Declined to Provide Evidence of Trump's Claim that the Report was Rigged. "The revisions are the hard evidence," He said.

A Preposterous Charge: Larry Summers, a former Treasury Secretary who served in Democratic Administrations, said McEntarfer couldn't have Altered the Data if She wanted to. "These numbers are put together by teams of literally hundreds of people following detailed procedures that are in manuals," he said This Week. "There's no conceivable way that the head of the BLS could have manipulated this number."

Misunderstanding: William Beach (R), Appointed by Trump to the Job in His First Term, said the Trump doesn't seem to understand the Process, Agreeing that McEntarfer couldn't have Changed Numbers. "The commissioner doesn't do anything to collect the numbers. The commissioner doesn't see the numbers until Wednesday before they're published," Beach said. "By the time the commissioner sees the numbers, they're all prepared."

Trump's Call: "You want to be able to have somewhat reliable numbers. There are always revisions, but sometimes you see these revisions go in really extreme ways, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer (R) said.










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