Michelle Obama once called the White House "the people's house." Not anymore, at least temporarily.
The Obama administration is "playing defense" over its decision to cancel tours at the White House due to the budget cuts, or "sequester" that took effect at the beginning of the month, Fox News.com reported. Obama insisted Wednesday that the Secret Service was behind the controversial suspension of White House tours, a claim that was met with vocal skepticism during a closed-door meeting with Republicans.
The president, while leaving open the option of resuming tours for school children, explained to House Republicans during a meeting on Capitol Hill that "the Secret Service made the decision," Fox News reported.
Some view it as a "cynical" ploy to castigate blame on Republicans.
"This is another demonstration of the White House's arms-length relationship with the truth," The Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer said. "[Their thinking is] to shut down the tours deliberately to apply the pain of the sequester in a way that will be unmistakable and it will be out there, and then blame the Republicans"
The president and his aides appeared to be giving slightly different accounts of who was behind the decision. The Secret Service has already said it needed to pull some of its staff from the White House tours, but White House Press Secretary Jay Carney clarified that it was the White House, who approved the final decision to suspend the tours.
Carney tried to address the discrepancy again at Wednesday's press briefing. He said the Secret Service made the decision to withdraw personnel, and the White House later canceled the tours.
Carney also confirmed that the president has asked if there's a way to allow school groups into the White House, but he said there hasn't been a move to reverse the tour-closing decision entirely.
"In order to allow the Secret Service to fulfill its core mission, the White House made the decision to, unfortunately, temporarily suspend these tours," Carney said.
"The same taxpayers who are funding TSA officers' new uniforms are being denied the opportunity to tour the White House - the people's house," Kansas Senator Jerry Moran said.
Republicans, while stressing that the Capitol building remains open to visitors, decried the move as unnecessary and part of an attempt to make the "sequester" appear worse, and that the White House is deliberately blaming its political opponents.
Some suggested the first family could save the money by cutting back their own expenses. Texas Republican Representative Louie Gohmerttried to push an amendment that would prohibit federal funds from being spent on Obama's golf trips until public tours of the White House resumed.
The "sequester" was the $85 billion worth of budget cuts that went into effect at the beginning of the month,
