By Tom Toth
President Obama isn’t very happy.
Over the first 48 hours of the government shutdown, Americans have watched Obama and his Congressional gofers desperately attempting to paint the shutdown as a catastrophe forced onto the nation by the Tea Party.
- Photo Courtesy of Tamara Somerville: “There is a pervasive bipartisan sense in the neighborhood that padlocking the children’s playground is petty and absurd,” said Somerville. “Hopefully, it will occur to someone at the Park Service to unlock the gates before someone falls while scaling the fence.”
Children’s playgrounds: On lockdown.
National Memorials: Blockaded—yesterday, the World War II Memorial was assigned more security personnel than the State Department provided the Libyan consulate in Benghazi on 9/11/12. This vain attempt to stop the soldiers, airmen, and sailors who earned that memorial from accessing it was defeated when, assisted by Members of Congress, the World War II veterans just said no to the shutdown.
This is the same President who spent millions in tax-payer dollars on royalty-class vacations while frivolously continuing to deny White House tours to elementary students during the similarly-maligned sequester.
In fact, the WhiteHouse.gov website still says the following:
Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that WhiteHouse Tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013 until further notice. Unfortunately, we will not be able to reschedule affected tours. We very much regret having to take this action, particularly during the popular Spring touring season. Please check this webpage for updates regarding this situation, or contact the White House Visitors Office 24 Hour Hotline at (202) 456-7041.
Sincerely,
The White House Visitors Office
Clearly, Obama has shutdown fever.
Of course, when Federal land in Washington is actually trespassed upon illegally by Occupy Washington, a voting bloc backing the left with virtual exclusivity, not a finger was raised–a spectacle was not desired by our executive.
Images of first-world woe have flooded the media precisely because Barack Obama wants to feed the nation an exhibition of American life without his consent.
Such scenes were conspicuously absent from nighttime news in 1995 when the government last shut down. Bill Clinton didn’t order federal land closed and barricaded. There was no mention of canceling military academy football games barring the edict of the president’s top appointee in the Pentagon.
One function of government the president did want running smoothly the last two days–implementing Obamacare and opening the exchanges–turned notoriously sour as exchange registration sites remain out-of-commission.
Barack Obama is vindictively taking his ball and going home behind the rose garden podium. He is making a spectacle of his party’s shutdown because he wants to and is counting on us to blame his mess on “one faction of one party in one branch of government.”
Tom Toth is the Social Media Director for Americans for Limited Government
