7 things the government shut down that saved practically nothing
Published October 08, 2013
FoxNews.com
Republicans continue to allege the Obama administration is trying to make the partial government shutdown "as painful as possible," by closing down various operations that don't cost much to run anyway.
Here are just a handful of things that were shut down by Washington, despite a strong suspicion that doing so is not saving taxpayers money.
Websites
A number of federal government websites have gone off-line since last week, due to the partial shutdown. There doesn't appear to be much consistency to it. The Department of Defense, the White House and other branches have their websites online, though not regularly updated.
But several departments, including the National Park Service, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Agriculture, went through the effort to take down their sites entirely.
The Park Service site now tells would-be readers: "Because of the federal government shutdown, all national parks are closed and National Park Service webpages are not operating."
It directs readers to the site for the Department of the Interior, which is still operational.
Open-Air Memorials
The short-lived effort to close off the open-air World War II Memorial from visitors last week became the veritable symbol, for critics, of the government going the extra mile to make shutdown-related changes more visible.
"It cost more money to barricade the monuments than it would to keep them open," Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., complained on the House floor Tuesday.
Parking Lots
This is surely not the only example of a commonly used parking lot being shut down, but a spacious riverside lot 10 miles outside of Washington was targeted last week by the shutdown police.
The northern Virginia parking lot lies between the heavily traveled George Washington Memorial Parkway and the Potomac River, and is a popular pull-off for weekend runners and bikers. Thanks to the budget stalemate, though, the lot has been cleared out and barricaded. Though the parkway itself is still open, the road technically is maintained by the Park Service.
Unfunded Farm
Operators of a Virginia park cried foul last week after the feds shut them down. Granted, the park sits on federal land, but it apparently receives no funding.
The Washington Free Beacon first reported that the Claude Moore Colonial Farm was shuttered.
"You do have to wonder about the wisdom of an organization that would use staff they don't have the money to pay to evict visitors from a park site that operates without costing them any money," managing director Anna Eberly told the Free Beacon.
Ford's Theatre
The famed Washington theater where Abraham Lincoln was shot has also been caught in the shutdown web.
Though the group that operates the theater is a nonprofit -- and it survived the last shutdown -- Ford's Theatre was closed last week.
The group has since moved performances down the street.
"There are no federal employees, no federal expenses. . . . We are just a pawn caught in the game," Paul R. Tetreault, Ford's director, told The Washington Post.
Views
Some officials went beyond closing down America's parks and monuments. In South Dakota, officials put up traffic cones to prevent passersby from pulling over to take pictures of Mount Rushmore.
Perhaps it was a misunderstanding. The Argus Leader reports that state officials were told they were put up to "channel cars" into certain viewing areas. Some of the cones were later taken down.
Jogging
When they say the park is closed, they mean it.
A Pennsylvania man who went jogging at Valley Forge National Historic Park tells FoxNews.com he was hit with a $100 fine because the area was technically closed.
He claims he parked his car in an area that was not blockaded. He claims he thought jogging was still okay.
He was met by two armed park rangers and slapped with a ticket.
