National Park Closures

Whenever the current administration wants more money, they try to inflict as much pain on the public as their bureaucracy will allow. They did it with the sequestration and now they are doing it again with the government shutdown. Consider the following examples by the National Park Service:

• On Tuesday morning, seven National Park Service employees were seen erecting and tending to a barricade around the World War II Memorial, an open air, unguarded site in Washington, D.C. One NPS employee was operating a forklift. There usually are not any NPS employees working at the World War II memorial. It cost the taxpayers more to close the Memorial than to keep it open.
• The NPS has closed the Grand Canyon National Park even though the State of Arizona has offered to pay for it. A similar offer by the State of South Dakota to keep Mount Rushmore open has been rejected by the NPS. Considering the revenue normally generated by these two parks, their closure is costing taxpayers more money, not less.
• Lastly, here is a quote from an angry Park Service ranger taken from an article by the Washington Times: "It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation. We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”

The gates at the WWII Memorial have been wired shut to keep veterans from moving them...

Update (10/7/13):  Click here to see a list of government actions that are designed to inflict pain upon the public.