The U.S. currently holds $36.22 trillion in debt. That is a staggering figure creating rightful concern among Americans. It is also set to increase under President Donald Trump’s promise to extend his 2017 tax cuts and add $4.6 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The new border security measures Trump is seeking would add billions to the deficit, as well.
Reducing spending was a common refrain during Trump’s campaign and has come to roost with his request of lawmakers to identify trillions of dollars in savings through the budget reconciliation process.
What may be less known is that the nation has carried debt since its inception starting with the American Revolutionary War. That continued to grow until 1835 when Congress sold federally owned lands at the same time they cut the budget. Ever since, from economic depressions to deadly pandemics, the deficit has continued to rise.
With a real estate developer in office, it is of little surprise that a majority of Republican lawmakers are resurrecting the idea of selling off federally owned public lands – the birthright of 335 million Americans – to generate revenue to offset tax cuts designed to benefit the wealthiest of Americans.
The state of Utah is once again taking the lead to seize public lands, this time with a sophisticated and misleading state taxpayer-funded public relations campaign. It is also completely undeterred by the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 having denied ‘original review’ of Utah’s request that 18.5 million acres of federally owned and managed lands in Utah be placed under state control.
The state claims the federal government’s ownership of these lands is unconstitutional and sought to sidestep Congress by going straight to the Supreme Court to seek a judgment that would require federal officials to sell or transfer the land. Andy Gulliford chronicles the history in his recent column, “Utah’s potential land grab: A new fight for the West begins.” (Herald, Jan. 10).
The strategy Utah officials are counting on – as are Idaho, Wyoming and North Dakota who supported the state’s lawsuit before the Supreme Court – is that the services the federal government provides, such as catastrophic wildfire mitigation, would bankrupt any state landlord. The only recourse would be to raise taxes – which won’t happen – lease or sell lands to the highest bidder.
The strategy entirely ignores the fact that the 18.5 million acres of Bureau of Land Management land generates $6.7 billion in economic output, 36,000 jobs and $788 million in tax revenue for Utah each year. Comparatively, in 2023, Colorado’s recreation economy accounted for $17.2 billion in economic activity and 132,600 jobs, 4.3% of all state employees.
The whole effort is a terribly cynical and myopic view of the value of public lands, only as a commodity. One to which Aldo Leopold (1887-1948), widely known as the father of wildlife ecology and management, modern environmental ethics and the conservation movement, would take great exception, as does the Herald’s editorial board.
“We abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect” said Leopold.
His land ethic is one to which both Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) adheres – both states have large swathes of federal lands – as reflected in recent statements opposing the GOP land grab.
Rep. Zinke, President Donald Trump’s Interior Secretary from 2017-2019, said in a Jan. 27 article by the Washington Times, “It’s a ‘no’ now. It will be a ‘no’ later. It will be a ‘no’ forever,” he said.
Sen. Heinrich, in a Jan. 15 opinion column for The Hill, said Utah is putting at risk everything Americans hold dear about our public lands.
On behalf of all constituents in the 3rd Congressional District, we urge Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-CO), who lives in and has practiced law in the growing outdoor recreational economy of Mesa County, to join his colleagues in Montana and New Mexico and say no, not now or ever, to selling our public lands.
