Starting this past weekend, tours of the White House have been suspended. School children and civic-minded tourists can blame the sequestration for the unavailability of the tours, which cost $74,000 a week. Why it costs that much is a mystery, but presumably it’s related to security. The question is, how is the country to deal with this crushing blow? Without White House tours, it’s likely that American society will devolve into a chaotic freefall, with citizens simply beside themselves as their minds are occupied with what is surely the very fabric of the nation’s identity.
Hitting on the incredible importance of this issue, one reporter asked White House Press Secretary Jay Carney what the president’s answer would be to a group of sixth graders from Iowa who had planned a field trip this week. Carney responded with the gravitas that the situation demands, noting, "It is extremely unfortunate that we have a situation like the sequester that compels the kinds of tradeoffs and decisions that this represents. And in order to allow the Secret Service to best fulfill its core missions, the White House made the decision that we would, unfortunately, have to temporarily suspend these tours."
We’ll see if stock markets plummet and frantic calls from world leaders start pouring into the White House over the move. Surely this suspension of tours is going to rock the world’s faith in the U.S. A recorded message from the White House alerts would-be tourists of the dire situation, noting, "Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013, until further notice. Unfortunately we will not be able to reschedule affected tours. We very much regret having to take this action, particularly during the popular spring touring season." Stay tuned for important updates on this most pressing issue – politicians said the sequestration was going to be difficult to swallow, but they never said anything about this level of pain.
Hitting on the incredible importance of this issue, one reporter asked White House Press Secretary Jay Carney what the president’s answer would be to a group of sixth graders from Iowa who had planned a field trip this week. Carney responded with the gravitas that the situation demands, noting, "It is extremely unfortunate that we have a situation like the sequester that compels the kinds of tradeoffs and decisions that this represents. And in order to allow the Secret Service to best fulfill its core missions, the White House made the decision that we would, unfortunately, have to temporarily suspend these tours."
We’ll see if stock markets plummet and frantic calls from world leaders start pouring into the White House over the move. Surely this suspension of tours is going to rock the world’s faith in the U.S. A recorded message from the White House alerts would-be tourists of the dire situation, noting, "Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013, until further notice. Unfortunately we will not be able to reschedule affected tours. We very much regret having to take this action, particularly during the popular spring touring season." Stay tuned for important updates on this most pressing issue – politicians said the sequestration was going to be difficult to swallow, but they never said anything about this level of pain.