[COLUMN] Obama Shutdown Reveals His Character

I woke up Tuesday and the sun was in the sky, the roads were still there, my phone had service, businesses were open, the Internet was still functioning and the mail came. All this with the federal government closed. Will wonders never cease?

In fact, for most Americans, life was pretty much unchanged, unless you were one of the federal government’s small percentage of nonessential employees. Why does the federal government have nonessential employees? I know of no business that has nonessential employees.

Still, the so-called government shutdown — which is really just a slowdown — imparted two lessons, how little the federal government is needed and the character of those involved, in particular President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Obama’s behavior, especially, has been despicable. He is, perhaps, the most partisan president in U.S. history. The tone of his rhetoric is unconscionable for a president. As the chief executive, he is supposed to at least pretend to he holds the country’s best interest above that of his party. You expect continual bashing of the opposition party from lawmakers, because, let’s face it, that is what they do. But the president is supposed to be at least slightly above that.

Obama showed his true colors when, knowing a group of aging World War II veterans was coming to Washington to see the World War II memorial, he had it barricaded. Then, when Republican lawmakers went out to help move the barricades, Reid ordered the Democratic lawmakers not to help. Only one Democrat put doing the right thing above partisan politics and helped move barricades.

The closing of the memorial had absolutely nothing to do with the government shutdown. It is an open-air monument that is accessible to the public 24/7 regardless of staffing. In fact, it cost more money for the monument to be barricaded than it would have to leave it alone.

But none of this matters to Obama. His only goal is to hurt people and then blame it on the Republicans. There must be a special place in hell for someone who would try to score political points by denying a World War II veteran his only opportunity to see the memorial.

Of course, the major media outlets all but ignored this story. Had Obama been a Republican, it would have been the lead story for three days on every network.

Then Reid, when asked by a CNN reporter about a Republican bill to fund the National Institutes of Health so cancer trials for children could be resumed, basically said he did not care about one child with cancer and expressed credulity than a reporter would ask such a thing. Of course, I was surprised, too, that a reporter would actually ask Reid, or any Democrat for that matter, a tough question that has no good answer.

Of course, I have long come to expect this kind of behavior.

Obama and Reid are really hoping that the Republicans will be blamed for the shutdown, when, in reality, it is Reid and Obama’s fault for refusing to negotiate.

Now, Democratic automatons tell me that because Obamacare is the law it is somehow beyond the reach of mere mortals. Of course, slavery used to be the law, too, until the GOP repealed it.

But their argument is wrong for another reason. The shutdown is not about Obamacare, it is about basic fairness and fiscal responsibility, something that continues to boggle the leftist mind.

Laws are supposed to apply to everyone. Obama, though, has granted waivers, exemptions, and delays to his friends. If delays, waivers, and exemptions are good for some, they should be good for all Americans. If a law does not apply to everyone equally, then, by its definition, it is not a law, at least not a law in a constitutional republic such as ours.

Republicans were also asking that a 2.3 percent medical device tax, which is causing jobs to ship overseas, be repealed.

A real leader would have sat down and negotiated and reached a compromise on these reasonable points in order to keep the government open. But, no one has ever confused Obama or Reid for real leaders.