Well, this might be peak irony.
The government recalled furloughed workers to calculate how much more expensive your groceries are getting – then sent them straight back to the food bank.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics dropped Septembers inflation data late because the shutdown benched almost everyone whose job is to track prices. Then someone in the Trump administration realized they needed that number to set Social Securitys cost-of-living adjustment. So they brought workers back just long enough to crunch the numbers, unpaid, then sent them home again.
Heres what they found – sort ofHousing costs are up 4.2% from last year. Foods up 2.8%. Energys up 6.1%. That $100 grocery bill from three years ago now costs $120. Rent that was $1,500 is now $1,800. And the statisticians who figured that out are standing in food bank lines trying to stretch canned beans into dinner.
Over 370 federal households showed up to one food bank in Maryland this week – twice what organizers expected. Lines stretched for a mile. These arent overpaid bureaucrats. One woman spent 17 years distributing grants. Now she’s waiting in line to receive one.
Republicans blame Democratic spending. Democrats blame corporate greed. Neither mentions that the shutdown they both caused is wrecking the very system that tracks inflation in the first place.
The people crunching the data are driving Ubers between unpaid shifts they’re legally required to show up for. Others can’t even do that. If you’re excepted, you work for free and can’t take side gigs. Federal workers in DC – where rent averages over $2,000 – are four weeks deep without pay.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics produces data the entire world relies on. Now that reliability is at risk. Economists already doubt the September numbers because of the shutdown delays. Funding cuts didn’t help – BLS has lost about $170 million in purchasing power since 2018. Theyre supposed to measure the economy while living paycheck to paycheck.
Social Security needed those numbers fast to set next years adjustment: a 2.8% increase, about $56 a month. Then they sent the workers home again. Medicare premiums are expected to jump more than 11%, so the entire raise is gone before it lands.
The people who calculated that number are wondering how to pay rent. Some have 38 years of federal service and are running into coworkers at food banks. The shutdowns at day 25. No one in Congress has the votes to fix it. Workers will eventually get back pay, but not groceries, rent, or time lost.
If there’s a better metaphor for government dysfunction, I haven’t seen it.