Catherine Rampell

There are other kinds of malfeasance I'm worried about.

And Donald Trump, I think, very much wants to be cooking the books.

But there is no evidence to date that he's actually doing that.

With respect to his statistics?

Yeah.

Well, he has, for example, fired all of the people who compile the poverty guidelines, which determine who is eligible for food stamps, Medicaid, other kinds of benefits.

So how is that going to work out?

We don't know.

He's gotten rid of a bunch of the health surveys.

He's cut the funding for a number of the other statistical agencies, so they've had to cut

a bunch of their measurements.

So like, for example, at the Bureau of Economic Analysis, that's the agency, the independent agency that does GDP statistics.

They historically have tracked a bunch of other things too, like investment in the US economy by foreign companies.

And they've had to cut back on a lot of those measures because they just don't have the money for it.

They don't have the resources.

They've lost whatever it is, like 20% of their staff this year.

And all of that means that they just like they can't measure stuff.

And most of those are things that maybe most people don't pay that much attention to.

But Donald Trump is making lots of very bold claims about foreign investment in the U.S.

economy.