Adam Carolla is one of the few comics to notice the punitive nature of the current government shutdown, and he places the blame on one Beltway figure–President Barack Obama.
Carolla, alongside his podcast partner Dr. Drew Pinsky, railed against the “symbolic punishment” flowing from D.C. on a recent edition of The Adam and Dr. Drew Show. Carolla noted how the Obama administration embraced scare tactics when the sequestration kicked in, and now it’s more of the same regarding the shutdown.
“What I don’t understand is how President Obama can shut down the tours of the White House and then just go on golf vacations. I think it’s the weirdest and most pompous message to send to the people,” Carolla said.
When the government shut down earlier this month, most Americans felt … nothing, he said. And that wasn’t good enough for the current White House occupant.
“All right, veterans, the outdoor memorial which isn’t staffed by people, you have to go shut it down … it takes more people and more expense to staff it and shut it down,” he noted. “You’re putting barricades where there formerly weren’t any there … we own that .. we own that. It’s ours. It’s our land … we’ve elected you to govern it but not to shut us off … it feels punitive.”
“I don’t like when the American president almost has contempt for the American people,” he added. “That’s what it feels like to me.”
Both Carolla and Dr. Pinsky agreed the shutdown is a prime advertisement for smaller government.
“It’s showing the importance of local government … city government is where stuff gets done,” Dr. Pinsky said, adding that’s how the Founding Fathers envisioned the country.
“i would be for bigger government if I thought it ever worked,” Carolla said, noting the failures of public education as a key example. “It keeps growing and growing and burning more money and burning more money and test scores keep getting lower.”