The shutdown has hit backcountry guides in the Florida Keys. The National Park Service told charter guides that they cannot take clients fishing in Florida Bay until the Feds return to work. That puts the prime fishing between the southern tip of the mainland to the Keys — more than 1,100 square miles — off limits until further notice.
The shutdown has hit veterans who demanded access to the World War II Memorial following the government shutdown Tuesday. The site is one of several hosting protests. Park rangers erected barricades and police tape to block veterans and other visitors. Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) confronted a ranger for keeping visitors out. “The Park Service should be ashamed of themselves.” (Say what? The park rangers didn’t shut down the government. Mr. Neugebauer and his 534 Congress Critters did.)
The shutdown has hit Vermont’s Billings Farm and Museum of Woodstock in the wallet, too. The Billings Farm and Museum is the gateway to Vermont’s rural heritage and a working dairy farm but it is also right across the road from the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park.
“It’s a national disgrace,” a visitor from London said. “You don’t get government shutdowns in Germany, in China, or other civilized places. It’s a disgrace. What does [your] government normally do that makes it safe to walk” around there?
The shutdown has not hit the U.S. Congress who appear to be on vacation. Again.
Even Mark Halperin, the senior political analyst at Time Magazine, acknowledged that the Demorats’ strategy depends not on the facts but on the mainstream media blaming Repuglicans for the shutdown.
Determined to jettison the Constitution, this Administration and this Congress don’t know how prescient the Founding Fathers were. After all, if the framers in that hot, sticky, Philadelphia hall had hewed a little more closely to our British cousins, we would have already had the No Confidence vote and recall election.
The WWII Memorial is not normally administered by the Park Service or any other government employees. They were sent there by the Obama administration to erect barricades and give the impression that the Park Service was no longer going to serve there, as if they ever had. While House Republicans may have been one of the causes of the slowdown, along with Senate Democrats, there was no reason for the WWII Memorial to be included. This was a clear attempt to shine a harsh light on Republicans and remove the onus from Dems.
This entire boondoggle is just that, Congress’ and the Administration’s political ploy to avoid doing their real job.
Last I checked, you and I own a piece of every national park, monument, and building. I think it’s time to go use them. Heck, there are 800,000 Americans on involuntary vacation this week. They should take their families to spend that time in the parks.
I’m in. Who pays for the motor home?
Let’s see if we can get a grant from the Park Service…
“Say what? The park rangers didn’t shut down the government. Mr. Neugebauer and his 534 Congress Critters did.”
I’m relieved to hear that Obama is blameless in all this. I was afraid he would get accused of malingering after he refused to negotiate with Congress on the debt/healthcare issue. But he stood his ground and made sure his family got their monthly vacation. I just hope they didn’t go to any of the National Parks and were turned away by the barricades. I hope they went to some place nice.
— George