Posted on 10/02/2013 11:09:08 AM PDT by GraceG
So I got to thinking recently int he last two days.
I know that is a dangerous thing to do in the USSA these days....
If the Fed Gov really wanted to keep parks open in spite of shutdowns and raise a little money to boot, why not do the following:
1. Make a list of all State Governments that are currently "In the Black" financially.
2. Take that list and cross reference it with a list of National Parks.
3. Offer to sell back the National Parks to those states for the average asking price of undeveloped real estate in that state.
4. Take that monety and apply it paying the defict.
Win-Win
The states get to manage the parks and the fed gov can pay off debts.
Granted this won't allow all National Parks to "re-open", but it would be a good start!
There should be no Federal Highways either...except for the ones that cross Lake Ontario to Canada.
I am totally in support of that idea.
Particularly if it will get rid of that annoying PSA on my radio where Julia Louis-Dreyfus whines on and on about how our national parks are “underfunded”.
I have a better idea...auction them off to the PRIVATE sector and use the coin to PAY DOWN THE DEBT!
The Chinese own enough of our land as is, no thanks.
There should be no Federal Highways either...except for the ones that cross Lake Ontario to Canada.
Don;t give them ideas, they will shut down the Interstates to make us “feel the pain” of a shutdown...
Michigan should never have given its parks over to the Feds in the first place. We ran Sleepy Bear Dunes just fine on our own. Raise the fees some, but keep the states in control.
There’s nobody at Yellowstone to turn on the geysers.
AMEN!
Commie Ken Burns' PBS special of 2008 was titled "The National Parks: America's Best Idea". That's a lie. The nationalization of territory by the feds was an evil encroachment, violating state's rights as recognized by the Tenth Amendment. I don't give a hoot about Yellowstone, Jellystone or those other lands usurped by Washington, DC. Back in my younger days, there was always much more fun to be had at places like Six Flags, Opryland or Busch Gardens.
ALL land within a state should be the property of and controlled by the state. Period. We should not have a National Park Service, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, etc, etc. Revenue for leases should be going to the state. Sale of land should be at the discretion of the state. Western states are burdened with huge, large, enormous tracts of land that are not taxable and vertually non productive.
Great idea. And in the interim what Republican governors who have national parks / monuments / etc. in their state should do is activate the National Guard and assign them to keep the facilities open during the the “shut down”. Think of the optics of a confrontation between park rangers and armed guardsmen as they work to let the masses enjoy “their” property. And think of the good will that would be generated towards those governors.
This is a perfect opportunity for a real public uprising against Obama.
Got an even better idea—open most nat’l park land to homesteaders.
A few weeks ago I told a girl at Yellowstone that after dark the rangers turn off the pumps feeding the falls, and they shut down the boilers to the geysers.
She answered back, “I suppose that after dark the rangers probably also shut down the robot animals!”
I accused her of stealing my thunder.
“ALL land within a state should be the property of and controlled by the state.”
Why “should”?
Bear in mind that in the case of many (not all) states beyond the first thirteen, said states were formed from territories which were owned by the United States. Not the United States Federal Government, the United States.
Second Paragraph, Section 3, Article IV of the US Constitution states in part: “The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States;” At the time, that was mostly the Northwest Territory, but later other Territories came to belong to the United States.
Bearing that in mind, in many cases all of the territory/land/property within the bounds of a newly formed state was not granted to the State upon it’s Statehood. Some was retained by the United States.
So again, why “should”?
Did you ever see the video of the college students who came out with a big valve and put it by Old Faithful? That is a classic.
Which is why it's a bad idea to turn the National Parks over to the states. Yosemite used to be entrusted to the state of California and the valley floor was clear cut and the Merced River was polluted with mercury from gold mining.
IMHO National Parks are one of the things the Federal government gets RIGHT.
Sorry, but I haven’t known of any state assembly persons who weren’t as communist/fascist as any federal politicians. They’re also robbers and thieves for their more influential constituents. May as well privatize it all.
Sorry, but this is a dumb idea. Why would states want to make a huge capital investment in taxpayers’ moneys in order to acquire an “asset” that costs them an immense amount of taxpayers’ money each year to keep open?
US National Parks are under the control of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the institutional sponsor of the World Heritage Committee.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.