'All about power and leverage' -- feds shut down major roadway, block access to graveyard

Folks who live in the Great Smoky Mountains have just about reached their breaking point with the federal government.

“It’s almost like they are pushing to see how far they can push before the American people say enough is enough,” said Ed Mitchell, the mayor of Blount County, Tenn. “We were founded on a declaration of independence. And they are about to push the people to the line again.”

Nearly a third of Blount County is inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. So when the federal government shut down the park, it also shut down one of the area’s chief sources of revenue.

The National Park Service also closed the Foothills Parkway, a major thoroughfare in the county. The closure came without warning and left the local school district scrambling to get children back to their homes.

At what point do you say to heck with the feds?

The children live in the eastern Tennessee community of Top of the World – serviced by School Bus 49. Normally, the bus travels along the Foothills Parkway. Other roads leading to the isolated mountain community are impassible by bus.

Democrats who want kids with cancer to die, like Harry Reid, don't care if your kids get killed on a school bus.  This may be the point where there are a lot of local insurrections.

It’s gotten to the point where Mayor Mitchell said Americans are ready to start fighting back.

“It’s almost like they are pushing to see how far they can push before the American people say enough is enough,” he said.

They almost crossed that line in Blount County.

The mayor sent a letter to the Department of Interior and copied the area’s congressional delegation. The letter detailed a plan that would allow the local government to take control of the park until the federal shutdown ended.

“We were willing to open that park up at no cost to the federal government,” he said. “We worked out a plan. That park could be running today just as efficiently as if the federal government had it up and running.”

He never heard back from the feds or his state’s congressional delegation.

This is a perfect time for the Tea Party to show up.