White House may reopen for school tours. Is Obama feeling sequester heat?
President Obama may be backtracking on ending White House tours because of 鈥渟equester鈥� budget cuts. He鈥檚 talking about restarting some executive mansion visits for some deserving groups, in any case.
of ABC News aired on Wednesday, Mr. Obama said that the decision to cancel the popular tours was made by the Secret Service.
鈥淭his was not a decision that went up to the White House,鈥� he said.
Now he鈥檚 gone back to Secret Service officials and asked whether they might rethink their decision. Obama said that, in particular, he鈥檇 like to make sure tour groups that perhaps raised money to visit D.C. via such things as bake sales don鈥檛 end up standing outside the White House gates in a disappointed scrum.
鈥淐an we make sure that kids potentially can ... still come to tour?鈥� Obama asked rhetorically.
Hmm. Is the administration feeling the heat from criticism that it鈥檚 overblown the impact of sequester cuts? After all, lots of critics hit the White House tour closures as a bit over the top.
Well, we鈥檝e got a few points to make that we think might help explain this matter. To start with, we鈥檒l answer Obama鈥檚 question: Yes, you can make sure deserving school groups still get in. You鈥檙e the president. It鈥檚 your house.
It鈥檚 true that the sequester is a blunt instrument and the Secret Service probably does have to cut agent activities somewhere. But we鈥檙e pretty sure they鈥檒l move their numbers around if the Big Boss asks.
Second, Obama should not have been surprised by the tour closures. It鈥檚 possible that he didn鈥檛 know about them in advance, as he implied to Mr. Stephanopoulos 鈥� missed connections, sloth, and ineptitude explain many generic Washington snafus. But the president should have been informed about something some so symbolic. If he wasn鈥檛, we鈥檒l bet that yelling was involved when he found out.
And finally, Obama would not be talking about this as he is unless he and his officials knew it was a mistake. In the face of the sequester, his approval ratings are sliding. For instance, has his approval rating at only 50 percent, down from 55 percent in mid-January.
In the same survey, only 44 percent of respondents said they approve of the way the president is handling the economy. Obama spent a lot of time prior to the sequester warning the public about fiscal pain to come; most voters have yet to feel it, and that seems to be taking a toll on the president鈥檚 numbers.
One thing is certain: Donald Trump won鈥檛 be sponsoring any tour revival. On Monday, he offered to pay to reopen the White House to visitors, but on Tuesday, administration adviser Dan Pfeiffer said, no thanks.
鈥淭he Donald Trump option is not an option; what we have to do is deal with the sequester,鈥� Mr. Pfeiffer said Tuesday on CNN.
