Michael Ramirez of Investor’s Business Daily thinks so.

Word came this week that the National Institutes of Health has suspended therapy-dog visits to sick children at its clinical center because of a 25% reduction in staff, even though volunteers run the program.

Seems the veterinarians who evaluate the dogs have been furloughed. So how about the frequently used dogs that have already been evaluated? No deal.

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid refused to fund NIH clinical trials for children with cancer. When asked why, if it could mean saving a single child, Reid replied: “Why would we do that?”

These are just kids, after all. Who cares if they’re in pain or die because of his intransigence and lack of compassion?

It’s comforting to know, however, that the House and Senate gyms are still open, that the government had enough money to buy a mechanical bull and, while the feds barricaded the open-air National Mall and threatened to fine and arrest those who walk there, they’ll let an immigration amnesty rally take place on those same grounds.

After all, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez will be in attendance. Apparently, as with ObamaCare, they are exempt from the rules the rest of us must follow.

Then there are reports of the National Park Service kicking families out of campgrounds in the middle of the night and keeping drivers from stopping at turnouts that have views of Mount Rushmore, even though the turnouts are not part of the national park. …

… [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid and President Obama blame the GOP (and it certainly deserves its share), but let’s look at the real numbers. The last time Republicans controlled both houses was the 109th Congress under President George W. Bush in 2007. Expenditures then totaled $2.73 trillion, the deficit was a whopping $161 billion and the national debt was $8.95 trillion.

Last year, federal expenditures totaled $3.54 trillion, the deficit was $1.089 trillion and the national debt just before we hit the prior debt ceiling was $16.3 trillion. Expenditures the year before were even worse — $3.6 trillion — with a deficit of $1.3 trillion. No wonder Reid refused to pass a budget.

As Peggy Noonan recently noted, “And what all this means is that Republicans, who hate big government, are fighting to keep it open, and Democrats, who love big government, are fighting to keep it closed. Strange.”