Government is a trust

... and the officers of the government are trustees. And both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people. - Henry Clay

Ace is writing on the Park Service shenanigans during the shutdown (emphasis in original):

Obama does not own the military, the government, or the national parks, media. Obama instead is the trustee of these things -- but is required to oversee them for the benefit of their true owners, the American People.

Here are some other things a trustee cannot do: [snip]

And he definitely, definitely may not block the beneficiary from enjoying the property held in his name to coerce the beneficiary to pay him more for his services as trustee, or to give more freely to charities the trustee favors.

Read the whole thing.

Living in a company town

T99 has been on a roll over at Grim’s with her posts on the ways the Administration is implementing the shutdown to make it as unpleasant as possible for the citizenry. One of her recent posts concludes with the best paragraph I’ve read on these kinds of tactics:

Frankly, the whole business underscores what a bad idea it is to get used to freebies from the feds.  Anytime they're in a bad mood, they can restrict access to make a point.  We should be working on making them as unessential as possible.