Posted by Tina
National Review posted an article yesterday, “The Federal Government Should Follow the Constitution and Sell Its Western Lands,” by William Perry Pendley, that advances the notion that the federal government should sell it’s Western lands. Citing various governors from Western states, Pendley makes a pretty strong case. See if you agree:
Time and again [the president] preached cooperation and partnership. . . . And time and again he was the first to ignore his own call,” says the governor of Colorado. Wyoming’s governor complains: “The federal system is badly out of kilter. Federal encroachments on state and local governments are at an all-time high.” The governor of Arizona fumes: “What galls westerners is . . . the federal insistence that it is entitled to act not only as landowners, but also as sovereign.” Adds Colorado’s governor: “[Government bureaucrats] can’t figure out whether they’re landlord or king,” as they “steamroll state agencies, ride roughshod over regional water rights, and destroy environmental laws [in an] arrogant nullification of 200 years of constitutional history.”
These are the impassioned words, not of today’s western governors, but instead of governors from nearly four decades ago, Democrats all, objecting to the policies of President Jimmy Carter. Little wonder California governor Ronald Reagan, in an October 1979 radio address declared, “from the Rockies, across the deserts and all the way to the Pacific, the western states are voicing their angry resentment of a powerful absentee landlord — the Federal government, which has overlaid the West with controls and regulations as irksome as barb wire was in an earlier day.” (emphasis mine)
Jack and I have been saying that today’s Democrat Party isn’t like your grandpa’s Democrat Party. Maybe that’s why Reagan famously said that he didn’t leave the Democrat Party; they left him. It’s true, the modern Democrat Party doesn’t believe in “we the people” but in control of and power over the people by a powerful coalition in Washington.
Radical leftists are committed to turning this nation away from the most basic of our founding principles as expressed by our founders in official documents and in their private writings…that basic principle is freedom from tyranny:
>I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. —Thomas Jefferson
The Democrat Party today is headed by people who believe in federal government control in every area of our lives. Just a few decades ago this was not the case. Mr Pendley further makes the case when he writes:
in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the Court declared: “Not only do States retain sovereignty under the Constitution, there is also a ‘fundamental principle of equal sovereignty’ among the States. . . . Over a hundred years ago, this Court explained that our Nation ‘was and is a union of States, equal in power, dignity and authority.'”
When the federal government has assumed ownership of such vast amounts of acreage in the Western states it has severely marginalized the people of those states. None in the west would propose to sell our beautiful national parks, preserved for the benefit of all Americans now and in the future, but it’s time the federal government sold western lands and returned the authority for it’s use to the people of those western states.
NO!
The Feds confiscated the land with no compensation to landowners in the first place. Therefore, the land should be returned to the States or to the ORIGINAL owners for management or sale.
LOCAL control is always best!
Well now, there’s a response I didn’t expect. I agree completely.
I’m not sure how the federal government acquired every acre. I was told recently that some of it was the price for becoming a state. Don’t know to what degree. Originally the federal government thought the land would best be put to use by private farmers. Later when timber and other natural resources were seen as valuable, and attitudes changed, it was thought that these resources had to be “protected” from private entities that “couldn’t be trusted” to manage and preserve them. Gobble Gobble…we suddenly have lots of “protected land.” Nevada has a lot of mineral resources and it’s where atomic testing was done in the fifties.
I think a lot of the land held by the federal government should be managed by the states or sold to private interests. Certainly ranchers that have used land for grazing should have some kind of grandfathered use. It doesn’t fit my values to block families from using land they’ve used for decades to supply a major protein source, especially if it also will deprive them of their living…and their home.
Off Topic
The outrages from this administration never end.
Judicial Watch: Obama Family’s October Weekend Fundraising Getaway to San Diego Cost Taxpayers $2,001,468.90 in Travel Expenses Alone
http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-obama-familys-october-weekend-fundraising-getaway-to-san-diego-cost-taxpayers-2001468-90-in-travel-expenses-alone/
You say you are happy that it is now legal to buy out our political system so I say quit your complaining.
No we are not selling Public land to the Billionaires to tear up and destroy to supply China with oil and Minerals. Furthermore the White man stole that land from the Indigenous. If one were to return the land I say Give the whole continent back to those who are native to the land not Rich White Men who stole it to start with.
They want to tear up the Grand Canyon and Yosemite for profit of the few. WHat we really have is a Fascist country . A bunch of Republicans now railing to sell everything off to foreign and domestic Billionaires.
The gov is suppose to be the People. Those are taxpayers assets. Instead you seem to want an authoritarian fascist Oligarchy.
Tina stick a fork in me. It is you who wants to destroy this country.
What ever the Koch Brothers want- You rail for with useless propaganda.
1/7th of American Assets are now foreign owned. Yep lets just make the gov sell everything off to China Great idea!
62 people in the world owned 50% of the worlds wealth. maybe we should just give it away. I mean they will just steal any proceeds anyway.
I call Bullpucky ! Koch brainwash!
Gosh Dewey, when did Congress pass a law that says only foreigners can buy land in America? Seriously! You’re back in DC; you must have the inside scoop. Do the state governors know about this? I mean it this is serious…maybe you should organize a protest.
Newsflash! It doesn’t matter that rich people are rich when wealth can be created. I may be that “50% of the worlds wealth” is “owned” by 62 people. But so what? Wealth is not a fixed amount. Wealth is not a pie that’s divided among the people.
How much do you think it costs Apple or Dell to build and sell a computer. I can tell you it’s a lot less than what the customer pays. The difference represents the creation of wealth. Anyone that wants to build wealth for himself can do it. Not everyone will become a billionaire. Most people think they’d like to be a billionaire but if that’s really true why have they not taken steps to make it happen? Why have they not taken steps to even save enough for their retirement? Maybe because, like you, they think it’s a zero sum game and the rich are their enemies!
It’s a sad state of affairs when the majority of Americans believe that they have no power in their lives for the simple reason that they don’t understand how to build for their own future security.
The world has been corrupt from the beginning, Dewey, because humans are flawed. You should be thankful to live in America where you’re still free to build wealth and secure a future for yourself. Travel too far down that central government socialist road and that won’t be true anymore.
The last seven years of socialist growth in our federal government and Keynesian economics have worked to diminish and blunt every Americans ability to grow his own personal wealth. the middle and poorer classes lack the opportunity. Until quite recently they couldn’t even get a small return on a savings investment, not that they had enough extra money to save.
There may be wealthy people that are corrupt. There are a great many others that are not any more faulty than you are. Give it a rest!
It turns out the feds have already taken land from Native Indians in AZ and sold it to a foreign business. The land in AZ appears to have mineable minerals present in the Oregon land dispute.
Apache protesters: “John McCain is a traitor” for selling holy land to foreign mining company:
“In Arizona, a heated struggle over a patch of land has pitted Native Americans against Republicans in Congress as Apaches seek to regain protection for an area considered holy to their people. Members of the San Carlos Apache Nation are fighting tooth and nail to protect the land held as sacred for generations. The land in question, called Oak Flat, is situated about an hour east of Phoenix, and became endangered in December when Republicans slipped some fine print into a military spending bill that allowed Congress to sell away access to the Native holy land to a foreign mining company.
In Arizona, a heated struggle over a patch of land has pitted Native Americans against Republicans in Congress as Apaches seek to regain protection for an area considered holy to their people. Members of the San Carlos Apache Nation are fighting tooth and nail to protect the land held as sacred for generations. The land in question, called Oak Flat, is situated about an hour east of Phoenix, and became endangered in December when Republicans slipped some fine print into a military spending bill that allowed Congress to sell away access to the Native holy land to a foreign mining company.”
Continued..
http://inhabitat.com/apache-protesters-john-mccain-is-a-traitor-for-selling-holy-land-to-foreign-mining-company/?newgallery=false
What They Don’t Want You To Know About The Oregon Standoff [Picture, Video]
“The Oregon standoff is nothing new; it’s all about money, minerals and uranium wealth/ riches that thne feds don’t want to share with simple citizens; tney have bigger plans, international military plans for uranium. And abunch of disgruntled ranchers aren’t part of those plans; Wake up and smell tne coffee! muckracker”
Continued..
http://beforeitsnews.com/conspiracy-theories/2016/01/what-they-dont-want-you-to-know-about-the-oregon-standoff-picture-video-2473562.html