This is a picture taken from Townhall.com:

It is a helicopter hovering over the veterans protesting the barricading of the National Mall. The veterans took down the barricades and carried them to the White House, where they left them outside the gates on the lawn.

The article at Townhall reports:

It costs around $15,000 per hour to keep a helicopter in the air. As a reminder, the government is still shutdown and “non-essential” services are still unavailable. Apparently monitoring veterans with a helicopter is an “essential” function.

The National Mall is an open area. The cost of maintaining the Mall is the cost of picking up the trash and mowing the lawn. Neither of these activities approaches $15,000 a month, much less $15,000 an hour.

The closing of the Mall is an attack on the freedom of Americans. It is only one example of the government doing things to inconvenience Americans for political reasons. While World War II veterans are being denied access to their own monument, Camp David is open to the Vice-President and his family for a vacation. The political class should not be given special treatment while American citizens suffer because of their decisions.