Obama deliberately tried to do as much harm to the country as possible to blame the republicans. He stopped tours of the White House and put up fencing around the national mall. The National Mall is just a grass park that stretches from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol. It cost money to put up those fences. Why we have these budget confrontations with the debt ceiling is absurd. Nobody intends to stop spending and nobody intends to pay off the debt. Debt ceilings are always raised, why pretend anyway ?