>Hoss, I couldn't care less about
>one?s party. The Antiquities Act
>has always bothered me. If
>presidents adhered to the original
>tenants of it, I would
>be less bothered, but still
>bothered nonetheless.
>
>There is a certain thing called
>the Constitution, and I subscribe
>to it. I know, I'm
>old school and a dying
>breed, but those words still
>mean something to me. It
>was not intended by our
>founding fathers for the president
>to wield this much power,
>and these designations in Utah
>are proof of why.
>
>Yes, I realize the Antiquites Act
>delegated this power from Congress
>to the president. That doesn't
>mean I have to agree
>with it. And the Antiquities
>Act in its pure form
>has nothing to do with
>hunting or fishing or even
>public access to pubilc lands.
>In fact, a president could
>easily prohibit any of said
>actions in a designation if
>he/she so chose to do
>that. All with the swipe
>of a pen. Do you
>want one person carrying that
>much power? I don't.
>
>If I were in Congress I'd
>run a bill to repeal
>the Antiquities Act over and
>over and over again until
>it passed or I was
>no longer in Congress. If
>someone wanted to compromise by
>SIGNIFICANTLY reducing the president's ability
>to do this to only
>the most emergency situations, I'd
>listen. But I don't like
>the law, have never liked
>the law, and won't ever
>like the law, no matter
>what party carries the pen
>of designation.
I truly don't disagree for the most part. I agree 100% that Obama used it to punish Utah. However, there are the Indian grounds. Which, in Bears Ears SHOULD have been protected better. Seems the Chair of Natural Resources and his ilk loved to choked finances from FS/BLM, then turn around and squeal about poor management, maintenance backlogs.
Having said that, if Mike Lee and Romney want to run bills abolishing the antiquities act, more power to them, that is a debate worth having.
This bill IS NOT THAT. This bill seeks to carve out power for senators. If you detest antiquities, its not better with Mike Lee having the power vs a trump.
You and I have debated these issues previous. I keep trying to point out the long game, you keep looking at each instance as seperate.
The goal is the same. Mike Lee wants to DISPOSE of public land. His goal IS NOT to create better management of it.
This bill isn't to make anything more than yet another avenue to chip away at that.
Lee and now Romney are outright hucksters. Like you said, why dont they just get it over with and run bills to dispose of all public(parks not included) land, over and over? That's what they want, so why not just do it?(hint, they both live power and getting tossed out of office doesn't give them any).
I agree. If the Antiquities Act is unconstitutional, we have courts. We also have congress. You'd think a great federalist like Lee would want to use the system the way it is set up.
From the party of HUNTIN, FISHIN, PUBLIC LAND.