National Parks Shutting Down Costs Local Communities $76 Million Per Day

[Scuba]

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/10/02/2715921/national-parks-shutdown-cost/

Millions of tourists today are finding locked gates and closed roads at America’s national parks and monuments as a result of House Republicans’ demand that the federal government be shut down unless Obamacare is defunded, delayed, or repealed. Not only are these closures disrupting people’s lives by forcing them to cancel weddings and vacations, they are dealing an immediate blow to the local economies that benefit from the 300 million visitors who come to national parks each year and who, together, help support America’s $646 billion outdoor recreation economy.

The National Park Service put out a press release Tuesday noting that the government shutdown of national parks alone will result in total economic losses of $76 million per day to local communities. National parks provide economic benefits in a variety of ways, including tourists’ purchases of gasoline, food, lodging, and gear in “gateway communities” near national parks.



The states represented by Republican leadership in Congress will also be hard hit. Ohio, for example, home of House Speaker John Boehner, is losing $310,000 per day. Virginia, home of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, is losing $3.3 million per day. And California, home of House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy is losing $8.5 million per day.

It’s also worth pointing out that Texas, home of Republican Senator Ted Cruz who spent 21 hours on the Senate floor railing against Obamacare last week, is losing out on more than $1 million per day by national parks in the state being closed.

[onehandle]

1. Hopefully hitting GOPNRAteahadists worse than normal people. nt

[joeybee12]

2. And think of all the people who work inside the parks at the concessions...

They're not federal employees...they work for the vendors...they won't get back pay like the federal workers might once this is over...they'll never get back the money they lost.

[FSogol]

3. K & R. n/t

[Bjorn Against]

4. The economic impact of this thing is going to be huge

National Parks are just one small part of the equation, there are many businesses that depend on government workers. We only hear about the ones directly effected, but not the ones indirectly effected. I just read a local story last night about a canoe rental business that had to shut down because they launch their canoes from federal land, a school trip was scheduled to take place this week that would have brought 150 kids out to rent canoes from them and they had to cancel it. No doubt that cost them a lot of money, and that is just one story of many across the country.

There are also going to be major government contractors who lose a lot of money from this and I think that is what will eventually force the Republicans to back down. Some of those contractors are run by major Republican donors, do not be surprised if some major Republican donors tell Boehner that if he does not end the shut down they will pull their money from Republican campaigns. If there is one thing that Republicans do listen to it is money, and if they start having campaign donors pull funds then they might actually back down.

[kestrel91316]

5. This is what is going to eventually get them to move. Money.