[Political Junkie Too]

To many of us out here in the West, pursuit of happiness means ranching, farming, logging, mining, drilling, hunting, fishing, or just living in and enjoying God's great outdoors. It's un-American and unconstitutional for unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats in Washington DC to lock us out of our own lands.

Let me take it one step further.

The federal government is interfering with the rights of a state like Nevada in that it is preventing the state from growing new towns and cities.

The state cannot compete on an equal footing with other states, when the federal government is hoarding land that might otherwise be settled into a new town or city. That new town or city would change the demographics of the state, perhaps to the point of reapportioning representatives in Congress or even tilting the voting pattern from one party to another.

That new town or city might bring new industry to Nevada, and with it new revenues and taxes.

None of that is possible when the federal government is strangling a state like Nevada in a way that it does not in other states.

Nevada should go to the Supreme Court to force the federal government to release the land back to Nevada, so it can be on an equal protection footing with the other states in the union.

All states with significant lands being held by the federal government should demand those lands be returned to the state, so that the state can grow its population, its revenue base, and its representation in Congress. By hoarding these lands, the federal government is essentially choosing its representation in Congress, by limiting the ability of western states to control its own destiny.

-PJ

[Jim Robinson]

Absolutely.

[mc5cents]

Excellent point!! The Feds should “own” if that is the right word at all, only the property that it needs to fulfill it’s constitutional responsibilities. Period.