And well he should have
(The Blaze) During a U.S. House hearing concerning the closure of national parks and monuments during the partial government shutdown, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) scolded the director of the National Park Service for treating “pot-smoking†demonstrators in the Occupy movement with more respect than the nation’s war veterans.
Gowdy relentlessly challenged National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis to cite the federal regulation that prompted his department to put up barricades to keep veterans out of war memorials on the first day of the shutdown. He also pointed out that the Park Service failed to issue a single citation when Occupiers camped out at D.C.’s McPherson Square for 100 days — 100 days in “non-compliance†with federal regulations.
“That was two years ago,†Jarvis explained.
“Well, I can cite you the regulation that you did not follow two years ago. Can you cite me the regulation that required you to erect barricades from accessing a monument that they built?†Gowdy pressed.
“On the very first day of the closure, I implemented a closure order for all 401 national parks in compliance with the Anti-Deficiency Act,†Jarvis replied. “And immediately, that day, also included, as a part of that order, that First Amendment activities would be permitted on the National Mall.â€
Unimpressed, Gowdy snapped back: “Do you consider it First Amendment activity to walk to a monument that you helped build, or is it only just smoking pot at McPherson Square?â€
Of course, Gowdy shouldn’t have just been blasting Director Jarvis: he should have been blasting (NMP) Obama, the person ultimately in charge, who could have stopped this. Republicans should have been blasting Obama left and right during the shutdown over this. Whenever they came on TV or radio they should have been using harsh language, the same type of harsh language Obama and the Democrats have used. They should have been making sure every Low Information Voter knew what was going on, and how despicable it was. Instead, they continued with their measures, reasonable talking points. Thomas Sowell calls them the “inarticulate Republicans“.
Republicans were never going to defund Obamacare. The Senate would never sign off. Nor would Obama. They might have gotten a one year waiver on the individual mandate. Probably not. But they could have emphasized all the temporary breaks and waivers Team Obama has given out like candy. They didn’t. Not in language that resonates. As Phineas tweeted
@WilliamTeach In all honesty,this was the right battle to fight,but at the wrong time & w/wrong strategy. But, it's done now @sistertoldjah
— Phineas Fahrquar (@irishspy) October 16, 2013
Republicans pretty much obtained zip. Not even the messaging battle.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
The Republicans further slowed the economy which they can blame on Obama. That’s a Republican winner. The downside is that the American voter may not like that Teapartiers put their movement ahead of America.
When you slash gov’t spending you cut services. Why do conservatives have such a tough time understanding this simple calculus?
Your institutional disdain for arithmetic is showing.
Are conservatives upset to find that some gov’t expenditures benefit the white middle class? Wait until the white middle class gets a taste of what you have planned for Social Security and Medicare.
Because as an absolute statement, it is blatantly false.
Why is it that liberals can’t get the basic understanding that the government is restricted to certain activities and therefore “expanding” wish list services is not a good thing? Why is it that liberals can’t get the idea that the government is woefully inefficient and wasteful?
Is it really your contention that only the federal government can regulate education? Is it your contention that the waste and fraud in Medicare (which could have funded health insurance for all of the uninsured people in the country is a “service?”
Bull. The House passed spending resolutions which the Senate refused to take up and the President aid he would veto. The shutdown is on the Democrats, not the Republicans.
Furthermore, if the Democrats were so concerned with the economy, why did they shut privately administered parks and facilities that actually brought in revenue to the government?
Sorry, but your ideology is contrary to the facts.
(Gee, what a surprise.)
gitar,
The folks are correctly blaming the Republicans for the shutdown. But, nice try. All the Dems had to do is gut the ACA and the Repubs would open the gov’t. That’s hostage-taking, just as the folks surmised.
I’ll ask again. Why do you guys seem surprised that shutting down part of the gov’t results in some inconvenience? If you tell park rangers not to go work, the parks will close. If you tell National Cancer Institute (NCI) program directors to stay home, the NCI will not respond to your telephone calls or emails.
Your non-response is to re-affirm your anti-gov’t ideology rather than to address the reality. You shut down some gov’t functions that you don’t like anyway, then blame Obama and the Dems when your constituents complain about being inconvenienced. You can’t have it both ways.
If you want to further cut government services, all you have to do is win more elections. Honestly and sincerely tell the American people what you want to accomplish and let them decide by electing a President, Senators and Representatives to effect your goals! Schoolhouse Rock has a cartoon on how laws are created to help you out.
The House did their job and passed bills funding the government. It was the Senate the refused to even take up the bills and the President that threatened to veto them.
There was no “hostage taking” other than the Democrats saying “do it our way or else the entire government will be closed.”
Jut to remind you, the House passed CR’s to fund the National Park Service. The House passed CR’s funding the NIH. Almost 20 CR’s were passed by the House, with the end result being the Democratically controlled Senate refused to even bring the funding bills to the floor.
The facts are against you, Jeffery.
I read my response again and am confident it not only is a response but it addresses your points.
Maybe you should run for Senate as you have a propensity to run away from facts that you don’t like.
Anti-Deficiency Act?? WTH?
WTH?!?!!? What the NPS did had nothing to do with ADA or contracts. In fact, if you want to take it at face value, they DID INCUR greater obligations since they had to pay to have barrycades erected several times, bulldozers, bulldozer transport, erecting driving cones and signs, printing shutdown signs, erecting NEW webpages, and paying NPS park personnel to POLICE the parks to make sure no one got in, when the NPS were rarely there to begin with.
Not real sure what point the NPS is now. Granted, they are good to have in the background cleaning and maintaining the parks, repairing things, picking up litter, rescue work, cleaning roads, petting bears, etc. But,… NPS has made themselves irrelevant.
But, nothing will change since our Repubs are idiot piles of jello.