Politicization Of Shutdown Is Yet Another Obama Scandal

Posted 06:38 PM ET

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.

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