Fox News is accusing President Obama of intentionally inflicting pain upon World War II veterans who were initially unable to visit the memorial to their legacy after it was closed in the wake of a government shutdown. Fox figures, many of whom have been advocating for this very shutdown, compared the memorial's closing to the cancellation of White House tours during sequester -- a move conservatives originally claimed was made for no reason other than to inflict pain upon the American people for political purposes.

On October 1, the federal government shut down when Congressional Republicans refused to pass legislation funding operations unless the funding was tied to the delay or defunding of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare). As a result of this shutdown, national parks and museums -- including the nation's monuments -- were forced to close.

One of the shuttered monuments was the World War II Memorial on the National Mall. The closing initially prevented busloads of veterans from accessing the site. As media attention focused on their plight, members of Congress --  many of whom are vocal advocates of the shutdown in the first place -- aided the visiting vets in removing barriers in order to “storm” the monument. National Park officials eventually opened the site to veterans, who are now considered as participating in a First Amendment protest.

Right-wing media, particularly the pundits at Fox News, rushed to accuse President Obama of unnecessarily closing the monument in order to cause “some sort of pain” against the American people. On the October 2 edition of Fox News' The Five, co-host Dana Perino said the administration “wanted to insert some sort of pain, so that as they screw down the nut, and then you'll start to feel like 'oh, my gosh, we have to compromise.'”

Perino went on to characterize the closing as “the Washington Monument strategy” -- a political strategy that, according to The Washington Post, “involves fighting against budget cuts by focusing...cuts to the most popular and visible services an agency provides.” Co-host Eric Bolling concurred, likening the closing of the World War II memorial to the cancellation of White House tours in the aftermath of sequestration.

On Fox Business Network, host Lou Dobbs said that in March, the president was “trying to make the sequester as painful as possible ... and that's what they're doing now.” He followed up, saying, “There's just one conclusion as to why they did block the wide open space in the first place -- the administration wanted to.”

The war memorial, as well as the other parks and museums under the purview of the National Park Service (NPS), are deemed non-essential services under a shutdown of the federal government, and NPS employees, including park personnel, face a requisite furlough. The NPS shutdown contingency plan requires the suspension of “all activities except those that are essential to respond to emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.”

In addition to being routine, the parks shutdown was also highly anticipated. National media widelyreported that parks would face closures in the event of a shutdown.

Nevertheless, right-wing media figures at Fox News have long been urging Republicans to force a government shutdown unless Democrats cave to their demand to begin dismantling the ACA. Dobbs himself was praising the effects of the government shutdown earlier this week, saying, “Maybe we need to shut it down every couple of years under this administration.”

The network's comparison to the effects of the sequester cuts is apt, but not for Fox's intended reason. The draconian across-the-board budget cuts went into effect after Congressional Republicans refused to compromise with Democrats on a plan avoid them, and Republicans praised the spending reduction as a “victory.”  As a result, White House tours were initially cut by decision of the Secret Service in order to save an estimated $2 million. The canceled tours became an obsession of right-wing media, who accused the Obama administration of hurting school children while largely ignoring the more significant and harmful impacts of the cuts.

Photo Credit: NPCA Photos via Flickr