National parks are being wielded to build opposition to the congressional budget impasse that could lead to the first shutdown of the federal government since 1995-96.
In a release sent wide and far, U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, raised the spectre of a shuttered Yosemite National Park in railing against Republicans he maintained are driving the government closer to a shutdown.
“This weekend, Yosemite might turn into ‘NOsemite’, as our national treasures would close their gates and send American families away,” said Rep. Markey. “House Republicans are telling the American families who would like to walk in one of our national parks this weekend to ‘take a hike.’ These forced closures could devastate the already fragile local economies of small communities which depend on national parks for tourism dollars.
“For House Republicans, the Tea Party is more important than the Tetons,” said Mr. Markey.
President Obama and Democrats have proposed significant and responsible budget cuts in an effort to meet House Republicans more than half way, the congressman's staff maintained.
Comments
Has anyone noticed that this article and most of the posts are two years old?
Yet it sounds as if it was written just today.
Perhaps it's true that some things never change.
I find it funny how every body blames the other guy over this mess our nation is in.Problem 1 try to find something made in the USA anylonger.Greed and EPA thanks for that one.If the National Parks Service has such a money problem where is the money coming from for all these fancy new visitor centers all over the country and why are we adding more lands if we can't afford what we have.Let's quit letting the liberal press lead us around by the nose.
Oh, for pete's sake.
A plea to stop just blaming the other guy, followed by an attack on the "liberal press". What fertilizer.
Yes, your probably part of the problem not the solution.And when was the last time your liberal press had a solution to the financial mess our nation is in other than lip service. O that's right more fertilizer! Life is what you make of it not what you expect the next guy to give you in life,thank you.
As Lee pointed out above, this story was originally posted two years ago, so although the subject is still relevant, a more current Traveler story on the same general topic is found here.