So it seems that Reps. Rob Bishop and Mia Love are unhappy with the park service plan to increase visitor entrance fees. The fact of the matter is, the park service has a massive (about $12 billion and counting) backlog of maintenance that it must do something to address. As the good representatives have been too busy doing nothing, they have clearly missed this fact entirely.
So if not a fee hike, what would they propose be done about the situation? Perhaps it is time to apply a little Republican logic.
The current fiction being spun by the GOP-led Congress is that if “people” (billionaires and giant multi-national corporations) were to only pay less in taxes, the federal government would (somehow, mysteriously) wind up with more money in its coffers. (“Don’t ask us how it works. It just does. And if we have to explain it to you, you clearly are not capable of understanding it in the first place.”)
So, all we need to do is follow the “logic:” If the park service would only charge less for its entrance fees (for example, $10, down from the current $25), it would (again, mysteriously) suddenly be awash in cash with which to address its backlog.
I’m not an accountant, but I’m sure the GOP prognosticators, being the visionaries that they are, will be able to come up with an exact amount that will make this possible.
And to think, this solution has been in front of us all along.
Andrew S. Merrill, Sandy