Politicization of Government Shutdown: Chaulk Up Another Scandal For the Obama Administration

It became clear very early in the shutdown, that the Obama administration was playing games with the American people.   The administration was doing everything they could to make it painful for Americans and easy for the ones that would expedite Obama’s ultimate goal — cause chaos.

[H/T Investors]: Government: The politicians’ gym stays open, but the Washington Mall closes — except for an immigration rally. National parks close, but presidential golf courses stay open. This is one politicized government shutdown.

President Obama has made the public at large feel as much pain as possible from a government shutdown he’s betting will ultimately be blamed on Republicans; meanwhile, he and other politicians shield themselves from the pain.

“Grocery stores on Army bases in the U.S. are closed,” Bloomberg News reports. “The golf course at Andrews Air Force base is open.” As Tim Toth of Americans For Limited Government found: “Since Obama’s much-maligned sequester hit Washington, the president has teed off for 30 rounds of golf. That’s 540 holes, or 1,000 hours of golf, not including 19th-hole time.”

A 56-year-old jogger was fined $100 by park rangers on Sunday for running in Valley Forge National Historical Park in Pennsylvania. But as Obama-friendly ThinkProgress.org reports, politicians are still exercising: “The exclusive gyms available only to members of Congress have remained open throughout the shutdown” — featuring a taxpayer-funded heated pool, basketball and paddleball courts, sauna, steam room and TVs.

Elderly tourists at Yellowstone National Park were threatened with trespassing charges by park rangers just for stopping their bus to photograph bison, the Washington Times reports, then were ordered to stop “recreating” and “return to your hotel and stay there.” Of course, their $300 fee hasn’t been returned.

The seniors were even turned away from the bathrooms of a private dude ranch within the park under threat of its license being revoked.

Meanwhile, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi thanked President Obama for “enabling us to gather here” and conduct an AFL-CIO and SEIU-sponsored immigration amnesty rally on the “closed due to shutdown” National Mall in Washington. As Breitbart reported, “Scores of Democratic House members … began arriving shortly after 12:30 p.m. on golf carts.”

This is not the first time the federal government has shut down because of conflict between a president and a Congress. But it is the first time its armed agents have been told from on high to make things as painful as possible for ordinary people, while their rulers and their pet causes are exempted.

Who ordered park rangers across America to make life painful for ordinary people, but not for politicians? Who told them to become an American Gestapo?

Add this scandal to ongoing probes of the IRS targeting the Tea Party scandal, the Justice Department spying on journalists scandal, the Benghazi scandal, and the Fast and Furious guns-for-drug-lords scandal.

The real misuse of federal property is being carried out by the executive branch, not ordinary Americans.

What Government Shutdown? Joe Biden Was Off to Camp David for a Vacation

Now, I realize the absence of Joe Biden won’t mean a hill of beans on solving the government shutdown.  But just imagine for a moment, if you were in the middle of a crisis at work and you told your boss you were going on vacation.  Would you still have a job on Monday morning?  This administration is out of control, and they just don’t care whether you like it or not.

Weekly Standard reported: Despite the government shutdown, Vice President Joe Biden is vacationing at Camp David this long weekend. He’s joined at the Maryland retreat by his family, including his wife (Jill Biden), children, and grandchildren.

The vice president is also there with “essential” government workers, who must work despite the government shutdown. That includes his Secret Service detail, as well as the Secret Service details assigned to the rest of his family, and other support staff. They are protecting the Bidens as they vacation — but aren’t getting paid because of the federal shutdown.

The vice president’s public schedule simply reads:

WEEKEND GUIDANCE FOR THE VICE PRESIDENT

Saturday, October 12 – Monday, October 14, 2013

The Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden will be at Camp David. There are no public events scheduled.

Monday is Columbus Day, a federal holiday.

But Biden’s absence from D.C. during the government shutdown hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“I’m glad that negotiations are going on … I’m disappointed that twice … we were close to a deal and the Democrats moved the goalposts, in light of the polling data,” Republican senator John McCain said this morning on a Sunday show. “Maybe we need to get Joe Biden out of the witness protection program.”

But there’s no sign Biden will be back in D.C. today to help negotiate a resolution to the government shutdown.

Instead, he’s busy at Camp David, where there are bowling lanes, tennis courts, hiking trails, and even a skeet shooting range.

Glenn Beck: Dictator Obama Is Intentionally Inflicting Pain With Government Shutdown, Including Children with Cancer

Glenn Beck asserts that by “intentionally inflicting pain on the American people,” Obama’s handling of the government shutdown has been that of a “dictator.”

Shutdown: 91% of IRS Workers Have Been Furloughed and Considered ‘Non-Essential,’ Is the Government Shutdown Really So Bad?

For all the drama surrounding today’s political drama (which came and went largely unnoticed by a stock market hypnotized by the Federal Reserve), the bottom line is that the key impact of the government shutdown has been nothing more than the temporary unpaid leave of absence, i.e. furloughs (with all accrued, owed payments promptly being remitted once the government is unhalted) of some 815,932 civilian government workers, out of a total of 2 million, or a 41% furlough rate.

WSJ: ‘some agencies, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are seeing all but a handful of their employees go home without pay. Others, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security, kept the vast majority of their workers on the job. Certain divisions of government, such as the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Reserve, don’t operate under the normal appropriations process and their staffing remained unaffected.”

So, with 91% of the IRS’ total 94,516 workers considered ‘non-essential,’ is the government shutdown really so bad?

WSJ reported: More than 800,000 of the U.S. government’s civilian workers faced furloughs after the government shut down Tuesday. Some agencies, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are seeing all but a handful of their employees go home without pay. Others, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security, kept the vast majority of their workers on the job. Certain divisions of government, such as the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Reserve, don’t operate under the normal appropriations process and their staffing remained unaffected.

Here is an estimate of the number of workers furloughed across most of the government:

ABC Chief WH Correspondent: ‘Chances of a Government Shutdown at 99.9 Percent’

ABC’s chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl said he believes there’s a “99.9 percent” chance that the government shuts down on Monday.

When “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos noted in an interview Sunday with Karl that a shutdown late Monday looks “all but certain,” Karl concurred — and capped it with a percentage prediction.

“Positions have hardened. Time is running out,” Karl said. “I would now put the chances of a government shutdown at 99.9 percent.”

He then noted how swiftly the White House responded to the House measure: “Today Republicans in the House of Representatives moved to shut down the government,” Karl quoted press secretary Jay Carney as saying.

“The Senate absolutely will not pass what just passed in the House,” Karl adds. “And George, the Senate doesn’t get back into session until 2 tomorrow afternoon. That is ten hours before the government shuts down.”

Check out the exchange here:

http://www.mrctv.org/embed/123057