“Let me get this straight, Mr. President. You cut $267 million to get back $90 million. Now, I’m no mathematician, but I believe that’s called shitting the bed.” Photo: The Daily Show//Screenshot
Nick Offerman is a fan of National Parks. We all should be, really, because they’re wonderful places that are shining examples of the nation’s natural beauty. They’re not great money-makers, though, and under Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, they’re being decimated. Which is why Offerman, star of Parks and Rec and one absolutely astounding performance in The Last of Us, sat down on The Daily Show to sound the alarm.
“Our beautiful National Parks were the brainchild of Theodore Roosevelt — Teddy, if you’re nasty — and environmentalist John Muir, who you may recognize as the old man in Home Alone,” he deadpanned. “America’s National Parks, as the kids say, slay.”
The so-called Big Beautiful Bill is decidedly bad for the National Parks. Budgets and staff are being axed. The National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) are being decimated.
According to American Progress, “the proposed budget includes a nearly $4 billion cut to national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, wilderness and recreation areas, and more.”
Offerman went on to criticize Trump for his plans to cut National Park budgets by $267 million, while increasing admission for foreign visitors.
“Let me get this straight, Mr. President,” Offerman said. “You cut $267 million to get back $90 million. Now, I’m no mathematician, but I believe that’s called shitting the bed. But then again, I didn’t go to Wharton Business College.”
He then explained how America’s National Parks are a treasure to everyone, including citizens.
“That is the true miracle of our national parks,” Offerman said. “It is an affordable vacation that everyone can take inside our own borders, whether you’re traveling with your family or abandoning your constituents during a crisis.”
While the mostly-comedic actor presented in a joking manner, the subject matter is a serious one that anyone who loves the outdoors and National Parks in particular should be listening to.
