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.
He can’t by a long shot.
And running on this as broadly as Cruz is, will just give the Dems the ammo they need to say Cruz wants to sell Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore to the highest bidder.
And besides few states are chomping at the bit to have to devote their tight budgets to manage parks that they CANNOT sell least they want the public on their case.
This will make Cruz look like a nut because he doesn’t know how to frame the issue to his advantage.
I don’t know about that one.
On the Meaning of "Natural Born Citizen"
Commentary by Neal Katyal & Paul Clement, Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of Law, Georgetown University
The Naturalization Act of 1790 expanded the class of citizens at birth to include children born abroad of citizen mothers as long as the father had at least been resident in the United States at some point. But Congress eliminated that differential treatment of citizen mothers and fathers before any of the potential candidates in the current presidential election were born. Thus, in the relevant time period, and subject to certain residency requirements, children born abroad of a citizen parent were citizens from the moment of birth, and thus are “natural born Citizens.â€
As recounted by Justice Joseph Story in his famous Commentaries on the Constitution, the purpose of the natural born Citizen clause was thus to “cut[] off all chances for ambitious foreigners, who might otherwise be intriguing for the office; and interpose[] a barrier against those corrupt interferences of foreign governments in executive elections.†The Framers did not fear such machinations from those who were U.S. citizens from birth just because of the happenstance of a foreign birthplace. Indeed, John Jay’s own children were born abroad while he served on diplomatic assignments, and it would be absurd to conclude that Jay proposed to exclude his own children, as foreigners of dubious loyalty, from presidential eligibility.
While the field of candidates for the next presidential election is still taking shape, at least one potential candidate, Senator Ted Cruz, was born in a Canadian hospital to a U.S. citizen mother. Despite the happenstance of a birth across the border, there is no question that Senator Cruz has been a citizen from birth and is thus a “natural born Citizen†within the meaning of the Constitution. Indeed, because his father had also been resident in the United States, Senator Cruz would have been a “natural born Citizen†even under the Naturalization Act of 1790.
Yup. Agree with him or he'll get revenge.
So you can go back 30 years to Sen Cruz's schoolmates both friend and foe and they will ALL tell you what a dedicated(obnoxious) conservative he was and is but Orange Gumby, a panoply of of 180 degree beliefs over that last 30 years, but SEN CRUZ is telling you just what you want to hear?
I’m trying to not say anything negative
about Cruz. Really. But it gets difficult.
But you did get the 'Cruz is a liar' meme in there so good for you.
I misread the article. Cruz is right.
Never mind.
After the Civil War, power shifted to the central government. No one challenged this takeover and the 16th and 17th amendments pretty much sealed the deal. There was no problem until the Clinton Crime Family and the Bush Crime Family started selling Federal Land to foreign interests.
Ad has been running constantly on TV here. Like we will believe it? Politicians have been telling us that for years.
Your post was bs based on bs like your multiple WSJ/NBC SC phoney baloney poll.
He changed his mind. Again.
Donald Trump: Don't hand federal lands to states
"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," Trump said during a talk with Field & Stream magazine earlier this week.
If this is reported correctly then I think Trump is on the wrong side of this discussion. We’ll see how it plays out.
NYS, Pa etc (the eastern states) did the same thing with any lands west of their present western boundaries....way back circa 1788.
Voted for GWB in 2000 primary; Reagan in 1980 primary. I have a poor track record for selecting winners. Expect to vote Cruz on March 1
Another lie if told enough times will be believed by the sheeple.
Ted publicly called McConnell a liar on the Senate floor. So, what would have been the cause of that? He and other Senators were lied to about that vote. A mistake was made and he owned up to it. Oh, you conviently forgot that one. Senate procedures seem to be fleeting tidbits when trumping up other candidates.
Garbage in Garbage out.
Trump’s actual words rather than the Narrative of the Uniparty and those pushing other candidates.
“Government should do public works & safety & little else
Common sense tell us that the two basic principles of governing should work anywhere they are applied. First: Get government out of activities it can’t do well. (A list of thing government doesn’t do well is a very long list.)”
“Second: Get government back in the business of providing for public convenience (transportation, public works) and safety (police and firefighters), and make sure it does so efficiently. Then judge its efforts by visible, definable results and fine-tune as needed.”
Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p. 60 , Jul 2, 2000
Abolish Common Core and Return Control to the Local Level. Cut the Department of Education and the EPA
“Bring on the competition; tear down the union walls
Our public schools have grown up in a competition-free zone, surrounded by a very high union wall. Why aren’t we shocked at the results? After all, teachers’ unions are motivated by the same desires that move the rest of us. With more than 85% of their soft-money donations going to Democrats, teachers’ unions know they can count on the politician they back to take a strong stand against school choice.”
“Our public schools are capable of providing a more competitive product than they do today. Look at some of the high school tests from earlier in this century and you’ll wonder if they weren’t college level tests. And we’ve got to bring on the competition - open the schoolhouse doors and let parents choose the best school for their children.”
“Education reformers call this school choice, charter schools, vouchers, even opportunity scholarships. I call it competition - the American way.”
Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p. 80-81 , Jul 2, 2000
You're right...Cruz is a more convincing liar. His emotional 'out of the shadows' speech was totally convincing, even though he told us later it was only part of an elaborate ruse.
Sorry Ted....They have been State and federal lands forever. Nevada wasn’t a state until 1864 and most of it is a desert.
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