Updates
March 13, 2013: something does not ring true here. I would assume protecting the president is pretty high on the list of federal priorities. But the 2% federal spending cut -- due to the sequester -- means that the Secret Service had to furlough some folks. And by furloughing those folks, they had to cancel White House tours.
Then, on top of that, the president of the most powerful nation in the world does not have the "power" or authority, to either a) exempt the Secret Service; b) find other places to make the spending cuts; or, c) direct that White House tours will continue, though perhaps limiting them to five days/week rather than six. Something does not ring true here. The Weekly Standard is reporting:
President Obama says he's not the one who canceled the White House tours. He made the comments in an interview with ABC News.
"[O]ne more question about the spending cuts," said the interviewer from ABC News. "You’ve been takin’ a lotta heat for this cancellation of the White House tours. They get– the Secret Service says it’s costs about $74,000 a week. Was canceling them really necessary?"
"You know, I have to say this was not– a decision that went up to the White House. But th– what the Secret Service explained to us was that they’re gonna have to furlough some folks. What furloughs mean is– is that people lose a day of work and a day of pay," Obama said, in response.
"And, you know, the question for them is, you know, how deeply do they have to furlough their staff and is it worth it to make sure that we’ve got White House tours that means that you got a whole bunch of families who are depending on a paycheck who suddenly are seein’––a 5% or 10%– reduction in their pay. Well, what I’m asking them is are there ways, for example, for us to accommodate school groups– you know, who may have traveled here with some bake sales. Can we make sure that– kids, potentially, can– can still come to tour?"Wanna bet the tours are back on by the end of summer?
March 10, 2013: There may not be enough money in the budget for White House tours, but there is apparently more than enough money for a 50th bash for vegan Michelle.
March 9, 2013: I just got back from watching Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. Wow. It truly puts Obama's decision to close the White House to his fellow Americans in perspective. Wow, wow, wow.
Original Post
Arbitrary. Capricious. Mean. Petty. Short-sighted. Presidential. Unfortunate. Bizarre. Unthinking. Bunkeresque. Miserly. Idiotic. (We don't allow the granddaughters to use the word "stupid.")
The adjective I like best for this decision: audacity.
Mandatory 2% cut in spending at the White House resulted in only one change: White House tours canceled. Just in time for spring visits by school children.
The link is to a mainstream media outlet. It is not a link to a far-right fringe website. It was Bloomberg that noted that: the only change at the White House with the mandatory 2% spending cut: cancel White House tours.
One wonders what sophomoric staffer came up with that idea.
Someone noted that even during the darkest hours of the republic (an oft-cited cliche), President Abraham Lincoln kept the White House open during the Civil War. I suppose this will go down as another first for this president: closes "America's house to Americans.
I wasn't going to post this link, and then I saw the picture of the Waverly, Iowa, elementary students holding up a sign asking Mr Obama to reconsider.
My hunch is those Waverly, Iowa, students are learning some new adjectives and synonyms today, also. "Stinker" comes to mind.
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A Note To The Granddaughters
It is another coincidence that I am reading the final chapters of Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower. In the epilogue, Philbrick notes:
With the outbreak of the Civil War a few years later, the public need for a restorative myth of national origins became even more ardent, and in 1863 Abraham Lincoln established the holiday of Thanksgiving -- a cathartic celebration of nationhood that wold have baffled and probably appalled the godly Pilgrims.Be that as it may, the fact that President Lincoln found a way to raise the spirits of Americans during the Civil War speaks volumes and speaks volumes why Lincoln will never be forgotten as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, presidents ever. When one reads that passage after reading the story of the Mayflower, the Pilgrims, the Pokanokets, King Philip's War as told by Philbrick, one just knows that Abraham Lincoln never, never would have closed the White House to Americans.
Wow, the more one thinks about that single act ... a sad day for America. I wonder if this is the first time the White House has been closed for purely financial reasons?
