Unnecessary shutdowns

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

The federal government is shutting down a lot of things that are either don't need to be shut down (because they cost no money to operate) or actually cost more to shut down than they do to keep operating. These include both national parks and government agency websites.

http://www.ijreview.com/2013/10/84362-13-national-parks-impacted-government-shutdown/
http://reason.com/blog/2013/10/02/government-will-shut-down-websites-even

We're at the point where the government is just being petty and working on zooming well past that point.

For those who think it's justified because the Republicans won't budge on Obamacare, that just doesn't fit the facts.



As a libertarian, I'm fine with permanently cutting 800,000 federal workers and I think it's nice that they've identified the agencies we can do without, but I'd rather it happen with at least the standard 2-week warning for people. Pretty much all politicians in office right now are acting like children, but that's what happens when the electorate is also.

Comments

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure why not spending money to barricade and guard monuments that are normally open 24/7 and not guarded is "colossally stupid." Perhaps you can explain why?

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Except, of course, park service people are normally present at memorials. The Vietnam Memorial, for example, may be open 24 hours, but the park service people are there from 8am to midnight and, among other functions, help respectfully collect the tokens of respect and memory left by visitors many of which have been housed by the Smithsonian. In their absence, these will either be ruined or stolen.

And they certainly are present at parks. Parks that need to be patrolled for the safety of visitors and to prevent people entering the park from taking things from them.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

Park service employees are indeed typically present... giving tours. Indeed, we now just have park service employees there to make sure you don't move the barricade to get in. Never mind that at night there isn't any park service in attendance and the national mall isn't closed down normally. As for the tokens of respect, leave a sign saying not to leave any. Even then, it would be far cheaper to have one employee to stop by at a given time each day and collect them than to pay Rangers to guard a barricade all day. It also an odd position to take, "we can't afford to care for your tokens of respect, so please don't even come in to pay your respects."

Many parks I can understand closing down, as I've said elsewhere. However, the NPS has tried to close down many state parks because the receive federal subsides. Gov. Walker has already refused these request because the parks in question only receive 18% of their budgets from the federal government. Maybe they should have informed them they won't be getting that 18%, instead of ordering them shutdown? Not exactly an amount that would cripple them.

You say those on the right are being "colossally stupid," but I'm not seeing the logic in a lot of the actions of the NPS, unless their actions are meant to specifically make life hard on people, and as one park ranger (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/3/pruden-the-cheap-tricks-of-the-game/) put it: “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”