Posted on 01/23/2016 10:01:45 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
DES MOINES - If nothing else, Donald Trump certainly didn't toe the company line or kowtow to the citizens of Pella, Iowa, while touting his support for eminent domain during his second campaign stop in the Hawkeye State on Saturday.
With only eight days until voting, the Republican Party front-runner continued to back eminent domain before a crowd interspersed with locals from Pella and Oskaloosa as the two cities continue to push to build a regional airport next to Highway 163 using the practice. Twice, Trump called the practice a "positive thing" while talking up the necessity of its use.
"I'm not in love with eminent domain, but eminent domain is a good thing. It's necessary," Trump said, adding later that "eminent domain is something that's a positive thing - not a negative thing. Yeah, sometimes cities will use it in order to do business."
"Let's say a person has a house or a person has a backyard and they're going to build a factory that's going to employ 5,000 people, and sometimes the city will use the power," Trump said. "And by the way, if you don't get that property, they're going to go to another city, and they're going to spend millions of dollars and they're going to build a factory there, they're going to employ 5,000 people - but not in your city. Eminent domain is a positive thing. It's got to be used judiciously."
According to reports, the building of the proposed airport, which has been talked about for over a decade, would seek to use eminent domain to take property from nine separate properties. Despite largely enjoying Trump's remarks, locals in the crowd admitted they were a little surprised Trump used the occasion to support the idea.
"If I had to say yes or no to the airport ... I would say no. It's going to be a huge tax burden on the community. I don't want to see that," said Guy Schwab, a Pella resident. "I don't want to be given the bill for ... private enterprise thinking that they want something. Right now, we've got private businesses that front that airport. I don't want the bill."
Schwab, a 65-year-old impending retiree, argued that the airport isn't a necessity as the two current airports (Pella and Ottumwa) aren't deficient structurally or financially.
In his pitch, Trump also touched on the building of pipelines, specifically mentioning the Keystone XL and Bakken pipelines, which runs from Northwest to Southeast Iowa to deliver crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois.
"Where else is eminent domain used? For pipelines. All of these [GOP 2016 candidates] are in favor of the Keystone pipeline," Trump said. "You couldn't build five feet of the Keystone pipeline without eminent domain. It's going through people's farms, it's going through people's houses."
"Without it, you wouldn't have any highways, you wouldn't have laws," Trump continued. "Did anyone know that that's how you build roads and thats how you build schools and that's how you build other things?"
Bob Owens, a 61-year-old resident of Pella, agreed partly with Trump's points, stating, "yeah, you've got to think about progress, and you've got to think about things that [Trump] was talking about. But when it gets to actual personal and talking about taking away your farm, then it gets to be a little bit of a different deal [who's against the airport.] We have a good airport. We have an airport that's functional. I just personally don't think there's a need for it."
Although the situation is in limbo, the stance of many area residents is clear with signs lining Highway 163 protesting the airport. Other candidates who have come into the area have taken on the issue directly, with Sen. Rand Paul hosting a town hall on the subject in Oskaloosa on Jan. 7.
Trump is currently in a heated battle with Sen. Ted Cruz to win Iowa. According to the latest RealClearPolitics average, Trump leads by 2.5 points over the Texas senator. In the Washington Examiner's presidential power rankings, Cruz is in first place with Trump in second. While Trump is slated to make stops in Iowa on both Sunday and Tuesday, Cruz will be holding events from Monday to Friday, with the two meeting Thursday at the GOP debate in Des Moines.
Maybe my intent to vote 3rd party (most conservative) was an exception
Perhaps that's because the only indicator we have to judge how a politician might act in office is by his record. And Trump's record has been liberal most of his life, by his own admission. You may be willing to take his recent claim to conservative principles at face value, but many of us are not.
Look, this is a man who could not even be honest with the most important people in his life - why should we expect he will be honest with us?
Funny...
Trump just did a little crony capitalism of his own in Iowa... Buying votes with my money...
Yet you think a little crony capitalism here and there is okay when you guy is doing it. If he can’t get the small things right I don’t know why you expect he’ll get the big things right.
LOL. And let me see, 137 out of a thousand don’t want to cut their property in half.
Kindly explain how they block it.
Thank you for posting that REAL story from Hong Kong. Incidentally I had the good fortune to visit Hong Kong 2 years ago, and it is a great city!
I don’t believe that you would not vote for Trump over “The She Witch From Hell”.
N. Perhaps you should Google the Takings Clause so you know what you are talking about.
That's not what he is saying. What he is saying is if you are going to have a civilized society with some form of governmental structure it is a necessary thing. The extent of which it is used will be something to be aired in the court of public opinion. It's just common sense talk from the man. Nothing radical like he wants to build a casino in every hometown. Lmao.
He would stay home, and bitch when Hillary won. Almost as much as he would bitch if Trump won.
The “take my toys and go home” losers gave us the 2nd Obama term.
Thanks, purist losers. It cost our nation lots of things.
And yet when Cruz bad mouthed Proposition 187 to Bush, it wasn’t indicative of him being a RINO.
The problem is, not one Cruz guy want’s to face up to what he has been.
So instead we get out the anal prob for Trump, and Cruz is deemed the immaculate Conservative.
Sorry, I’m not on board that. I bring up the fact that Cruz backed John Roberts, and folks couldn’t be bothered. Why anyone could have done that.
Cruz did it. It wasn’t just anyone.
GFY statist puke.
Cheers!
Maybe he can go on a world tour with Whoopie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NINOxRxze9k
Air - La Femme D’Argent
Cruz does not support the use of eminent domain to take private property from one private party in order to give it to another private party - but then you know that. Cruz does support eminent domain as defined in the Constitution - to be taken with just compensation for PUBLIC USE. At this point, I'm not even sure Trump can spell Constitution...
“and it is a great city!”
It is less great than it used to be. It is rapidly becoming just another Chinese city
No one in the contiguous 48 states owns any real estate.
Get over it.
Actually, it's more of a natural, personal, and Constitutional right than a "concept", but that's cool, because Trump says some really cool, really funny $h!1, so it's okay to disregard that.
What are you talking about? Prop. 187 was a California proposition, and it was back in the 90's, before Bush was elected president anyway.
This topic is a waste of oxygen. There are hundreds of thousands of miles of pipeline buried underground in this country, and now all of a sudden it’s a hot topic. Let’s focus on hundreds of thousands of invaders coming into this country. There will be several 911s and some are worried about pipes and frogs.
A few things.
All the things you listed are public use except the pipeline (unless it was a public pipeline, like water). They are not the same. I know people (including myself) that have large energy pipelines on their property (different pipelines not just neighbors) and non of them were forced to accept the pipeline on their property through eminent domain. All involved easements and leases that were voluntary.
With Kelo, they can take your house for “fair market value” instead of whatever it takes to get you to sell it. So your seven times is out the window now.
Last, there are people who’ve lived on their property over many generations and don’t want to sell for any price. No private entity should be able to override a persons right to their property.
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