The September jobs report released Friday was so stunningly great one economist literally exclaimed “wowza.”
Fox News was forced to praise the numbers, with one guest lamenting he had expected “more red flags than a communist parade in this report, and there’s not a single one,” then having to admit, “There’s not one data point in here that I can point to that is not good.”
But not according to U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), who falsely declared Friday afternoon the report is “fake,” before also falsely claiming updates to the monthly reports across almost a year-and-a-half have all been revised down.
“Another fake jobs report out from Biden-Harris government today,” the Florida Republican wrote on social media. “16 of the last 17 reports have been significantly revised downwards after media helps them with their fake headlines.”
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“But all the fake numbers in the world aren’t going to fool people dealing with the Biden-Harris economic disaster every day,” he declared.
Many experts on social media were stunned by a sitting U.S. Senator taking such a drastic and negative stand on an independent, nonpartisan government agency — one, most do not realize, for which he sits on a Senate subcommittee overseeing its work and is responsible for its funding.
“The data truthers are back. Conspiracy-mongering about federal statistics is bad and harmful. Measuring national stats is inherently difficult & subject to error. But the BLS is an independent statistical agency that produces accurate, high-quality data,” observed The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell.
Journalist Kai Ryssdal, host of public radio’s business program “Marketplace,” commented: “I honestly don’t know what to do with this except to point out that it’s a feeble lie and deeply corrosive.”
Media critic and former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob wrote: “Marco Rubio, a sitting U.S. senator, accuses nonpartisan government statisticians of fraud simply because good economic news is inconvenient to his fascist political party.”
“Rubio dishonestly claims that revisions in past months’ job numbers is a nefarious plot,” Jacob continued. “In fact, it’s normal and happened under Trump too. The revisions aren’t always downward. Today the feds revised July and August numbers *upward* – which blows up Rubio’s conspiracy theory.”
“The Dept. of Labor stats are the same for all presidents, including Trump. Rubio’s sleazy attack undermines public faith for the benefit of a criminal liar,” remarked journalist Chris Bury.
Glassdoor’s lead economist Daniel Zhao remarked: “Deeply disappointing to see Sen. Rubio joining the ranks of those endorsing a baseless conspiracy theory questioning the integrity of nonpartisan BLS employees.”
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Jonathan Levin, who writes about markets for Bloomberg Opinion, observed, “America’s high-quality, nonpartisan economic statistics are the envy of world. Yes, the data is subject to revisions, and that’s why @BLS_gov publishes these confidence intervals. But I don’t see ‘economic disaster’ anywhere in this range of values, Senator @marcorubio.”
Professor of Economics, Public health, and Management Howard Forman commented: “Criticizing non-partisan federal workers/economists because they don’t tell you what you want to hear is Orwellian. You were once a man with huge promise. How low you have sunk. Truly ‘liddl Marco.'”
Professor of Law Darren Hutchinson, rebuking Senator Rubio, wrote: “The old southern church ladies would say ‘The Devil is a liar.'”
Former chief economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Ernie Tedeschi added: “Of course, this is a bald-faced lie. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is an independent agency priding itself on many layers of insulation from political interference.
Truly depraved of a sitting US senator to sow baseless doubt in data collected for the benefit of all Americans.”
In a press briefing Friday afternoon President Joe Biden was asked about Rubio’s false claims. It appears he had the last laugh.
“Anything the MAGA Republicans don’t like they call fake,” Biden said. “The job numbers are what the job numbers are. They’re real. They’re sincere.”