Cuts At National Park Service Aren’t About Efficiency:

There’s no data for how much money was lost by gateway communities near national parks during the 2018-2019 shutdown. The last one we have data for was the 16-day shutdown in 2013, which cost those economies $414 million in visitor spending. Again that year, 87 percent of NPS employees were furloughed during the shutdown. So again continuing our very bad math, with 31 percent of NPS employees gone, that adds up to $147 million in lost spending every 16 days, or $3.3 billion annually.

Ultimately, the Trump administration and Republican quislings in Congress are trying to offset $5 trillion in tax cuts for billionaires so they can pass the legislative priorities as part of a budget reconciliation package. The $228 million they hope to save by firing all these park rangers adds up to 0.00456% of that total. Less than a rounding error. Remember that when you come down with explosive diarrhea during your big national park camping trip this summer.