[GladesGuru]

Please don't take this the wrong way. It is not a personal attack, merely an educational suggestion. Take a copy of the Constitution to your favorite reading chair, sit down and read carefully - I have a feeling that you will not be able to find any authorization of Federal ownership of land for parks.

Custom houses, armories, navy yards, post offices, etc. are mentioned in the Constitution; parks are not. They began with Teddy Roosevelt. But that in no way makes them constitutionally legitimate.

Sell off Federal lands, privatize the Parks, put the "Armed and Rangerous" out on the economy instead of on Federal payrolls.

Summary: Shut down the Department of the Inferior.

All of it.

NOW!

[eBelasco]

Exactly. Well, almost exactly. We don't have to limit private investors to maintaining the parks as private parks. Just sell off the land and let the purchaser do whatever with it.

[sasquatch]

Please don't take this the wrong way.
Take a copy of the Constitution to your favorite reading chair, sit down and read carefully...

I study the Constitution frequently. It's a work of art. And I agree that the Federal Government should not be in the business of owning property. They're (its) not good stewards. Private property generates revenue; gov't dissipates it.Or pisses on it.

[arm958]

Custom houses, armories, navy yards, post offices, etc. are mentioned in the Constitution; parks are not. They began with Teddy Roosevelt.

Actually, it was a lot earlier. Yellowstone Park was authorized by Congress during the Grant Administration. The U.S. Army originally provided stewardship. The National Park Service was authorized by Congress in 1914 during the Wilson administration, long after the first parks were established.