Ok I can't tell on this one - but I know some of these are semi-automatic cuts - which means while the President and the Democrats are ultimately responsible (as are the Republicans) for not agreeing on a deal (in my book they are all refusing to do their jobs) I am not sure how much personal input Obama himself has.
This is not defending him, this is simply pointing out that there are some areas where the President probably can put pressure (and I'm sure the "make life as difficult as possible" park ranger comment is from the Administration or perhaps even directly from the oval office.
But a lot of stuff just comes under agency paperwork that determines ahead of time what is "essential" and what is "not-essential."
Now congress and the President can to some degree get things pressured or changed (look at the bills out there that are trying to get military Chaplains deemed essential, which I think they are) but for the most part agencies write this stuff up years in advance.
This one is another that obviously needs to be re-looked at, I can think of few things more essential - however, this also reminds me of the post I did long before the shut down which was pretty much that most Americans don't realize nearly how much the US government does (or affects their lives) until they or someone they love is directly and drastically affected by a shut down.
Any family or close friend of someone that was just lost in the line of duty military has just discovered this terrible fact.
Again, I'm not saying that the Federal Government should do everything it does (though in this case of course they should) but that isn't very helpful when it is yourself or your loved one who gets hit.
expatriate Californian living in rural Ireland with husband, dogs, horses. garden and many, many cats