GOP senators press Biden-Harris’ DOL over exaggerated job numbers revised down by 800,000
A group of Republican senators recently penned a letter to the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Labor demanding answers regarding the exaggerated job growth number that had to be revised down by more than 800,000.
The letter, obtained by the New York Post, was led by Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and signed by Republican Senators Ted Budd from North Carolina, Rick Scott from Florida, Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma, and Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee.
‘Created a false impression for the public.’
Last week, the Biden-Harris administration came under fire after its Bureau of Labor Statistics released its preliminary annual benchmark review, revealing that it had overstated job growth by 818,000, Blaze News previously reported.
According to the report, most of those revisions were in the professional and business services sector, as well as leisure and hospitality, retail trade, and manufacturing. The nearly -30% correction marked the largest overestimation since 2009. Final figures will not be reported until February 2025, well after the November presidential election.
The gross miscalculation prompted the Republican senators to question whether the initial estimate was politically motivated.
Marshall told the Post, “Using taxpayer dollars to mislead the public for political gain is an outrageous betrayal of trust and one of the reasons Americans have lost all faith in this administration.”
“Manipulating the numbers to spin a false narrative while people are struggling to afford gas and groceries is not only dishonest — it’s insulting,” he added.
In the letter to DOL acting director Julie Su, the senators wrote, “These misleading numbers created a false impression for the public and cast doubt on the validity of the Bureau’s accuracy and legitimacy.”
“As we approach the presidential election in approximately 70 days, the state of the economy is one of the major issues on [Americans’] minds. There should be no confusion when it comes to evaluating the health of our economy,” the letter stated.
The senators requested more detailed information regarding the revisions, including how many jobs were added as a result of the end of the COVID-19 shutdowns, how many positions were part-time and full-time, and how many government jobs were added.
The DOL has until September 9 to respond to the senators’ inquiry.
Former President Donald Trump (R) called the overestimated jobs report a “massive scandal.”
“The Harris-Biden Administration has been caught fraudulently manipulating Job Statistics to hide the true extent of the Economic Ruin they have inflicted upon America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “New Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the Administration PADDED THE NUMBERS with an extra 818,000 Jobs that DO NOT EXIST, AND NEVER DID.”
He warned that if Vice President Kamala Harris (D) were elected president in the upcoming election, millions of jobs would “vanish overnight.”
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