Gohmert starts First Golf War with White House

Rep. Louie Gohmert thinks that it’s an outrage that the President can go golfing when tourists are locked out of the White House, and he plans on doing something about it.

The Texas Congressman introduced an amendment to the continuing resolution on the budget  Tuesday, which would forbid the president from using federal funds to go on golf outings “until public tours of the White House resume.”

Gohmert cited press reports that say 341 federal workers could have avoided furloughs for the supposed $1 million cost of the President’s recent golf trip with Tiger Woods. These reports come largely from right wing media outlets like World Net Daily and TownHall.com, some of which seem to cite an article from the London Daily Mail. The Daily Mail report tallies the supposed cost of the trip from what are educated guesses and a call to the Holiday Inn (which housed the press and security entourage)—not from official comment from the White House.

The amendment springs from an obsession in some conservative circles with the president’s love of golf, which they feel takes precedence over actually running the country. Sites like RedState complained loudly when President Obama played his 100th round of golf in June 2012. There’s even a website that claims to count the number of rounds of golf President Obama has played since entering the White House.

But Obama’s number of golf trips is about average compared to other presidents—Eisenhower reportedly played 800 51073085 rounds of golf over his eight years in office.

With Congress in session just 126 days this year, perhaps what’s needed is an amendment that will keep legislators in Washington.