Posted on 02/23/2016 12:44:52 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Of all the controversies associated with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, his position on federally owned land tends to attract less attention.
But the issue of public land ownership is important to Nevadans, where federal government agencies manage and control around 85 percent of state land.
And it's partially why Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is slamming Trump on the issue in a campaign ad airing just days before the Nevada Republican presidential caucus on Feb. 23.
"Eighty-five percent of Nevada is owned and regulated by the federal government," says Cruz in the ad. "And Donald Trump wants to keep big government in charge. That's ridiculous."
The ad has aired dozens of times in Reno through the lead up to Nevada's caucus, according to Political TV Ad Archive. We thought Cruz's claim merited fact-checking, because public lands management is a critical issue with Nevada voters.
An on-screen graphic refers to a January interview with Field & Stream magazine, where Trump said he would be hesitant to give federal land over to state and local governments.
"I don't like the idea, because I want to keep the lands great, and you don't know what the state is going to do," he told an interviewer. "I mean, are they going to sell if they get into a little bit of trouble?"
Trump's campaign offered a slightly more detailed explanation of his proposed policy in an answer to a candidate questionnaire, but said the bigger issue was land management and not transfer of ownership.
"The issue is not that so much of the state is public land; it is how that land is managed," the campaign wrote, promising to cut "needless bureaucratic red tape."
The Trump campaign didn't return emails seeking comment.
Cruz, on the other hand, takes a more libertarian stance on public land issues and said the amount of land owned by the federal government is "unacceptable."
"I believe we should transfer as much federal land as possible back to the states and ideally back to the people," he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in December.
Cruz fought with the Bureau of Land Management over the agency's efforts to "claim 90,000 acres of disputed land near Texas's Red River," and for a time supported Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's standoff with the federal government over his unpaid grazing fees.
And many of the Texas senator's Nevada supporters pushed for a failed bill in the state Legislature that "would lay claim to almost all federally managed public lands and water rights in the state."
It's worth noting that Nevada's state constitution expressly gives up the state's rights to all "unappropriated public lands" to the federal government, which is why it's worth quibbling with candidates like Cruz and Rubio promise to "return" control to its citizens - who have never held a claim to the federally owned land in the past 151 years of Nevada statehood.
Our ruling
Cruz says that Trump wants to keep "big government" in charge of Nevada's public lands.
Trump has answered questions on public land management twice. He has not advocated for transferring ownership, but he has focused on cutting bureaucratic red tape. Cruz exaggerates Trump's position slightly by saying Trump favors "big" government.
We rate the ad's statement Mostly True.
“We rate the ad’s statement Mostly True.”
That’s a new record for the Cruz campaign
"...Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are among those who have strongly endorsed the idea, but other Republican candidates also have signaled varying degrees of sympathy for conservative voters in Colorado and beyond who are frustrated by what many say are excessively restrictive federal policies on public lands in the West.
It is hardly a new cry - and experts widely dismiss the notion as economically and environmentally implausible - but it appears to be getting louder.
At least 10 states in recent years have approved legislation that tries to claim federal land or explore the possibility of doing so, helping prompt the Republican National Committee last year to draft a "resolution in support of Western states taking back public lands." Some Western Republicans, facing battles with the federal government over mining and water quality controls, have called for abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency."......
He knows Cruz is not eligible to be president, which is more than the “constitutional expert” knows.
How did the feds wind up with the land in the 1st place?
Better be careful what you say about trump. He might sue you. /s
Pushing click bait eh? Man there are a lot of ads on there. A links to more click bait.
So big government is OK, so long as the right people are running it?
Thanks for clearing that up!
Trump is being cautious. Ted is telling you what you want to hear.
“It does appear he is impressed with and, by implication, intends to freely wield governmental power.”
It took him 69 years to figure that out?
I wonder if the TPP, the one that Cruz wanted to fast track and let obama negotiate, will make any difference with Federal or State owned land. Nobody knows for sure, because it’s done in ‘secret’. We do know, however, much of our sovereignty may well be history, if obama gets his way - and obama’s way on TPP is a-ok with Ted.
I don’t think the 500% increase in H1B visas that Cruz thinks is important to ram down our throats will make a difference, will it?
You and the rest need to read post 10 and then realize this is a non-issue issue.
Of course! Ted Cruz “knows the Constitution”, and he’s a lawyer. So by sheer force of will, he will know of a way to give the land back to the states with one fell swoop of a pen via executive fiat, regardless of whether the state wants it or not, in some cases! Don’t you see how this makes Trump a big government liberal!?!?
LOL
Well, he could have called Cruz a lying sack of dung loser, who will not waterboard terrorists, but Trump took it easy on him.
Louisiana Purchase and Mexican-American War is how the Federal Government acquired the land. Land was then disseminated to the create territories and thus States.
He's a Harvard trained lawyer, he probably even lied about not liking green eggs.
“Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz promised Nevada voters he will transfer control of federally-held lands back to the states if he’s elected.”
Where does “constitutionalist” Ted find the authority for the president to give away federal land? Isn’t that up to Congress?
Trump is against Federal Ownership of property
Your post was bs based on bs like your multiple WSJ/NBC SC phoney baloney poll.
Here is the reality:
Donald Trump takes on federal land control
Washington Examiner ^ | January 8, 2016 | GABBY MORRONGIELLO
Posted on 2/22/2016, 4:32:53 PM by Hostage
Forget China, guns or immigration. Donald Trump is taking on a new issue: federal land ownership.
In a new op-ed for the Reno Gazette-Journal, the Republican presidential front-runner rails against the draconian rule of the Bureau of Land Management and the Obama administration land grab in the western United States.
The BLM controls over 85 percent of the land in Nevada, Trump explains. In the rural areas, those who for decades have had access to public lands for ranching, mining, logging and energy development are forced to deal with arbitrary and capricious rules that are influenced by special interests that profit from the D.C. rule-making and who fill the campaign coffers of Washington politicians.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3400460/posts
Was this the one where Trump says he knows nothing about it?
I tend to loathe the use of the word “fascist” to describe modern politicians, but I can say, without any exaggeration or hyperbole that Trump is as much of a fascist as modern America can generate.
Same blindly stupid followers.
Same empty promises.
Same anger.
Same stated intended abuse of governmental power.
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