You may remember earlier this year that President Obama, in a fit of pique over Congress actually allowing his sequester cuts idea to take effect, had White House public tours canceled to save lunch money. During the later partial government shutdown, he ordered national monuments "closed," even though most are open-air. Now, comes holiday season in the Obama White House. Every president entertains there, though the Obamas showed no shyness about frequent lavish celebrity galas even as millions of fellow Americans struggled during the recession's highest unemployment.