National Parks suffer under DOGE

Tours cancelled, visitor centers closed, reduced hours at National parks

I'm so glad the fiscal conservatives have taken hold of government spending.   All those gate attendants at the National Parks were really blowing up our defict.    Not the 600 billion in delinquent tax debt.     

If you are planning a vacation to one of our National Parks this year be ready for long lines.   And if you are looking for the dent its putting in our deficit you are going to need a microscope.

Oh Jesus Christ. I was afraid this would happen. These park rangers do SO much good work, and they're paid a pittance--the job starts at $15 an hour. They do so much to keep the parks clean and safe, and enhance the visitor experience immeasurably. I've visited most of the national parks, some, like Yosemite and Yellowstone, dozens of times, and rangers are there to answer any questions, lead free nature hikes and educational talks, give campfire presentations and slide shows, all the while making sure everyone's safe. The benefit they provide is immense, and a true bargain because they do it not for the money, but because they absolutely love the job.

That asshole fuckface Musk. He's probably never camped out one night in his life. So I'm sure that he doesn't understand how much joy the national parks bring people. They've always been a great place for families in particular to vacation, and inexpensively, too.

The stupidest part is that this won't save a fucking dime. The Parks already operate at a deficit. This will just accelerate and increase the amount of maintenance and stewardship that is needed. You can't avoid that by firing the rangers any more than you can save the cost of road maintenance by firing all the road workers.

Damn that Musk fucker. Damn him. Damn him. He's hurting so many people. And now he's ruining one of our country's most precious assets.

I know we'll have our MAGAs ooze into this thread and start swinging their tiny dicks in glee--Millerscum? Iggo?--but I doubt that they realize the harm this will do. And that harm is inflicted on them as well.

I truly hope that someone kills Musk. He deserves it even more than Trump, who at least is sulking at Mar El Asshole, not actively ruining anything at the moment.

We love our outdoor activities in Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park is one of the most visited National Parks in the country.

 The tourism industry is a huge part of our state economy:

"Colorado hosted 93.3 million visitors who spent $28.3 billion in 2023. Spending by tourists supported 188,000 jobs and generated $1.8 billion in state and local tax revenue in 2023."

 PJ posts an article that shows one side of the story - apparently the liberal media has not mentioned anything about this  - I wonder why? Before I condemn this action I prefer to see ALL of the facts before post any more comments about this.

Yeah. Shut it all down and there will be "savings." Eliminate the "waste" by firing all the people who take care of the parks.

Even if MAGA doesn't care about the parks (and they'd rather stay home and get wasted than go on a hike), slashing visitor services is a bonehead move from a fiscal standpoint. There are entire communities that depend on National Park tourism. I wonder how they feel about Musk in Estes Park right now.

This isn't even new. Republicans shut down the government right in the middle of peak fall season, and hundreds of thousands of visitors to parks nationwide were turned away. Each of them would have paid $20 to get in. So much losing!

You're a MAGA pig and slavishly wag your tail-stump at whatever Trump and his lackeys do. You're not the slightest bit interested in any side of the story other than MAGA's.

And just so you know, stupid Millerpig--the ""liberal media" has reported this story in at least twenty different print and broadcast sources--maybe you don't know how to do a Google search?

But...nobody gives a rat's ass whether you "condemn this action" or not. Just remember--it's all your fault.

Stupid Millerpig.

But Parks employees found the time to haul a flag to the top of the mountain.  How many thousands were wasted on this?

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Florissant, Colorado, announced it would be forced to cut hours.

So some hours were cut at a park nobody has ever heard of.  In 2023 63,000 people visited the park or 172 people a day.  The country will survive.

Much like firing FAA employees...you wont see this action put the slightest dent into our deficit.

Its just a big show for MAGA sheep who cant do math.   Except there are real consequences for park visitors and park employees.  The entire Department of the Interior budget is less than .5% of the annual budget - and the salaries of Parks workers is only a tiny fraction of that.

John McCain pointed to million dollar grants when he complained about the deficit.  MItt Romney wanted to can PBS.   And Trumpy-poo is firing parks workers.       They all suffer from a lack  graph literacy.

Look for their trillion dollar tax cut plan in the near future....and they are going to say its paid for with the salaries of Parks workers and the other nothing cuts they have made to date.

YOU haven't heard of that park. Your ignorance doesn't mean no one else has.

It didn't cost anything to hoist that flag, idiot. And the message it sent was extremely relevant and worthwhile.

Just because YOU don't give a shit about our National Parks doesn't mean no one else does. I know you don't care about nature, or beauty, or peaceful places. You're a bitter old New Yorker who spends all of his waking hours screaming about FEELTHY IMMERGENTS. Crawl back into your hole, stupid Tom.

YOU haven't heard of that park.

With only 63,000 annual attendance not many others have either.

It didn't cost anything to hoist that flag

The US govt pay those rangers a salary & they took that money they earned for the couple of days they played around; a waste of money.

you wont see this action put the slightest dent into our deficit.

A million here, a million there and eventually you are talking real money.  After just over a month over $65B is already saved.

DOGE’s total estimated savings are $65 billion, which is a combination of fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings,