"Democrats may have permanently damaged the federal statistical system, as the October CPI and jobs reports will likely never be released," said Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary.
Leavitt claims, according to the Bloomberg news agency, that this means that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will be groping "blindly" during a "critical period" when it comes to decisions on the policy rate.
In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, White House National Economic Advisor Kevin Hasset said that the collection and processing of the October statistics was never completed due to the shutdown.
