Senate votes to keep White House tours closed

The Washington Times ^ | 3/20/2013 | Stephen Dinan & Seth McLaughlin

[Servant of the Cross]

Senators voted Wednesday to keep the White House closed to public tours, turning back a GOP-led effort to free up money to open the building back up after the sequesters.

The vote was just one of a series of high-profile votes the Senate was taking Wednesday afternoon as it plowed toward passage of a bill to fund the government through the rest of this fiscal year

[napscoordinator]

I never thought you were a big government lover, but your post surprised me. I guess you are a big time government lover that I did not know. Sad. Even the best FREEPERS are demanding spending on frivolous junk.

[kabar]

I never thought you were a big government lover, but your post surprised me. I guess you are a big time government lover that I did not know. Sad. Even the best FREEPERS are demanding spending on frivolous junk.

First, you still don't understand what the Senate vote was all about. It was not about spending money. The money not spent on the WH tours will be spent elsewhere, e.g., part of the $250 million we just gave to Egypt.

I don't know how you can categorize the costs to tour the WH, which is funded by the taxpayers as friolous. Maybe we should shut down tours of the Capitol, Mount Vernon, and close down the museums. Our national patrimony is important.

[concerned about politics]

oboma has declared a war on citizens.
Most people are smart enough to know oboma is doing this to punish them.

The democrats senate vote to support oboma helps us in 2014 quite a bit. This is a simple issue, but people aren't amused by it. It makes them feel .....uneasy.... about the democrats and the path they're taking. When the government starts punishing it's own people for being disobedient, people start to notice that maybe the government has gotten a little too big, a little too powerful, and way too far out of control.

[zigzagzoom]

This isn’t a time for luxuries like tour groups.

[Erik Latranyi]

Never ever, even after Obama is gone. Even if we have a Republican President. I had the exact same thought.

Remember when they closed Pennsylvania Avenue?

It never re-opened.

[proud American in Canada]

“My bet is the White House never reopens to the public again.”

_________________________________________________________

That’s what worries me. This is so wrong.

[exDemMom]

There is only one reason for the White House closure, and it isn’t because there are no funds to keep it open.

It’s because, whenever taxpayers balk at the high burden of taxes, the cuts the politicians choose to make are in the high-profile services that taxpayers either hold dear (e.g. White House tours), or in programs that are actually constitutional in function and have tangible impact on the health and welfare of taxpayers (e.g. FDA and food inspection). The programs that only serve to make more people dependent on government by redistributing wealth to pay for things they should be paying for themselves are NEVER cut. Bloated bureaucracies are NEVER cut. And the out-of-control spending keeps accelerating.

There is a real purpose behind this.

[88keys]

"Isn't it rich...

send in the clowns...

Don't bother, they're here"...

Fortunately, the clowns can be un-sent. Let's make it happen.

[88keys]

The tour guides are all volunteers, the only expense to the gov’t is the security, which is there 24/7/365 anyway!

The tours for the schoolkids are usually planned several months to a year in advance. A six month delay means that this year’s class doesn’t get to go, as they will be in other classes and schools next year, despite raising the money for the trip.

(You could) say “tough noogies”. Life isn’t fair, so I suppose this is one way of teaching that, right?

(Many individual citizens and groups) offered to pay the alleged expenses to keep the tours going, but the petulant one said “no.(..we must inflict maximum pain on the populace for the 'sequester' since we can blame the Republicans for that, and then they won't pay attention to Obamacare pain or our four vacations in three months. Just to be sure everyone's really distracted and continues to blame the GOP House, let's cancel the historic Cleveland Air Show because of the 'sequester' TOO)”.

There is NO legitimate reason to shut the doors of the White House to the people who pay for it. EVER. (Likewise delaying/closing National Parks, and otherwise relatively "cheap" budget items. NOTHING government-run is cheap, but the price of these "programs" pales in comparison to the profligate spending still going on for all kinds of useless "stimulus","earmark", and "personal executive" projects.)

Worth repeating! (with a few edits/additions from me...sorry, couldn't help it! So much to rant about here!!)

[88keys]

Perfect summary - thank you! You are SO right!!

Good talking point, too...$50K vs. a nickel...