Maximizing the Pain

President Obama is apparently determined to make the temporary government shutdown (which is really more of a slowdown) as painful for as many people as possible.  Why?  Because he seems convinced that those pesky Tea Party Republicans will get the blame and he’ll benefit politically.

How else can you explain the disgraceful spectacle of barring Honor Flight World War II veterans from the World War II Memorial?  It had to cost more to barricade and try to keep the elderly veterans out, many in wheelchairs, rather than just let them visit the open-air memorial.  If German machine guns and Japanese kamikazes couldn’t stop these American heroes, surely a few un-furloughed Obama park rangers weren’t going to keep them out.   (They moved the barricades and toured THEIR memorial.)

Obama tried to close Mt. Vernon, the home of America’s first President, George Washington.  But he found out that the federal government doesn’t own it; it’s privately owned by the Mt. Vernon Ladies Association.  So Obama had his park rangers close off access to its parking lot, which is jointly owned with the federal government.  One park ranger was so embarrassed by all this that he admitted “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can.  It’s disgusting.”

I’ll tell you what else is disgusting.  The lengths to which the Obama Administration is willing to go to inflict pain on the American people.  Here are a few more examples.

Not only did the feds shut down Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota, but to inflict even more inconvenience and pain on the public, they placed barriers at overlooks to prevent visitors from even pulling their cars over and viewing the world famous monument from afar.

Thousands of Americans lost their lives on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.  Rows of white crosses and stars of David mark the final resting place of so many who made the ultimate sacrifice there nearly 70 years ago.  This D-Day memorial in France has been closed by the Obama Administration, even though estimates are that it costs more to keep it closed than to let visitors in.

One of the things that brings a little bit of home to our troops overseas is the sports and entertainment programing of the American Forces Network.  President Obama can still play golf, or watch the Washington Redskins on T.V. (even though he just announced this week that he thinks they should change their name), but he has shut off T.V. sports and entertainment for the troops overseas.

The Vietnam Memorial.  Closed.

The Grand Canyon.  Closed.

The St. Louis Arch.  Closed.

Ford’s Theater.  Closed.  Even though Ford’s Theater is operated by a private non-profit, does not use any federal funding or federal employees in its performances, and was never closed during any of the other previous 17 government shutdowns over the past 37 years.

All this despite the fact that the House of Representatives has passed a bill to open all of the national parks and memorials.  Harry Reid refuses to bring up the bill in the Senate.  And President Obama condones, in fact encourages, Reid’s spiteful intransigence.

The House has also passed legislation to continue funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) so we can continue research on such important things as children’s cancer.  The Senate again refuses to bring the bill up for a vote.  When Harry Reid was asked by a reporter why the Senate wouldn’t fund NIH if it could help a child with cancer, his reply was “Why would we want to do that?”  His callous response got very little coverage in the mainstream press.  If a Republican had made such an insensitive remark (and I’d like to think one never would have) it would have received extensive and unending coverage.

The bottom line is, that even though a government shutdown will always inconvenience some Americans, it is shameful the lengths to which the Obama Administration has gone to cause pain.  It has manufactured inconvenience.  It has been petty, spiteful, and in some instances downright cruel.  It needs to stop.

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