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.
Who’s “we” you and the minority that didn’t carry even one county in SC?
Ted should give up the attacks, they are driving him down.
Does anybody (anybody?) believe Cruz actually plans to keep this promise?
1) On the priority list of things he’ll be faced with when taking office, where do you think “give federal lands back to Nevada” is going to be?
It won’t be #1, 2, or even 3. Closer #321.
2) How much political capital do you think Cruz will be willing to spend to get this done?
The Democrats, the left, and the MSM will fight this tooth-and-nail. It will be a battle on par with repealing ObamaCare, reforming the tax code, or stopping illegal immigrations. Will Cruz be willing to sacrifice ANY of those issues for land in Nevada? No.
This is simply pandering.
Anyone still trying to beat that dead horse is totally impervious to facts & a hopeless case. So carry on.
I live in an area that has been affected by eminent domain. Our local government is using federal (taxpayer) dollars in order to buy up houses and re-route irrigation ditches. They are doing it to create more land for developers. Unfortunately, it will also increase traffic and create other problems for the existing neighborhood.
Eminent domain doesn’t just affect one family home. It adversely affects everyone in the local community.
Whatever. Other learned people disagree. I agree with those that say he is not qualified.
http://www.businessinsider.com/law-professor-ted-cruz-is-not-eligible-to-be-president-2016-1
Now, questions surrounding family ties are flaring again in Nevada around the Senate majority leader. He and his oldest son, Rory, are both involved in an effort by a Chinese energy giant, ENN Energy Group, to build a $5 billion solar farm and panel manufacturing plant in the southern Nevada desert.
The ones who haven't bought Trumps snake oil.
I can’t believe the freepers on here are all for letting the government control all of the land, that states are either too poor or have governors too stupid to know what’s best for their own states. They are willing to say government is great as long as we have our guy running things.
Its not a dead horse dummy, its a statement of fact.
Cruz is an accomplished liar and his emotional ‘out of the shadows’ speech is prima fascie evidence of exactly how good he is at it.
“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 solution to big government is not better management.
I’m not going to post dueling links with you either. Just know that there are knowledgeable people who believe he’s eligible.
So we had the Northwest territory, then the Louisiana Purchase and a couple more. States evolved. Some federal Lands were given to soldiers (warrants). Some became Indian Reservations. Some became gospel lots. Some became sites for Forts. Some became military roads.
In other words, in all cases, excepted the original 13 colonies, the lands became Federal lands first.
Very Trumpesque response. You’ve earned your cookie today.
Excuse me but the cut and paste job is as bad as the logic. This is a real issue not a manufactured political ploy. Cruz is not a natural born citizen even though if his mother retained her citizenship when he was born and he completed his residency in the US and other requirements he is probably a citizen from birth on the basis of the statutes that were in force at the time of his birth. There is a lot of spinning going on with people who have agendas but the citizen born of citizens on US soil is the only universally accepted definition of NBC of the United States of America.
I hope you would agree that life, liberty, and property rights are the cornerstone to a Constitutional Republic. Aren’t you the least bit troubled that Trump has so little disregard for property rights?
Yes, Trump offered that woman more than her property was worth. Did that give him the right to try and take it by eminent domain for his personal, not public, betterment when she said no?
In the case of Nevada, he actually said that he didn’t trust the citizen’s of that state to make decisions regarding property inside their state boundaries. It’s amazing he wasn’t called for the suspension of their right to vote since he views them as so incompetent and untrustworthy.
And let’s not forget, Trump has repeatedly called for taking (stealing) oil from sovereign nations he doesn’t like. I’m no fan of any of the Muslim governments in the Middle East, but does that give us the right to take the oil within their sovereign borders? Trump is definitely a “Might Makes Right” despot in the making.
You can rightly say the Obama killed the Constitution. Trump will be the first post-Constitution President and it’s gonna get ugly for those who rightly oppose his unconstitutional “big-stick” activism.
..to which I say “ TRUMP’S SICK”
Trump has never given the impression that he sees big government as a problem. He seems to think that big government, not controlled by him is the problem.
Good for Cruz.
All excess Federal land should be sold to pay down the National Debt.
As if.....what Trump is doing re: promising a wall that Mexico will pay for, along with other BS campaign promises, isn’t simply pandering? Riiiight!
Maybe. He only seems to “know” that when the polls aren’t going his way. When they are then suddenly Cruz is eligible or could maybe be his VP.
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