Feds Should Sell, Not Manage, Western Land

Some kooks have occupied a bird sanctuary building in Oregon. At least that’s what you can get out if the news.  Their reasons are all about how much land the federal government owns out west and how poorly they manage it.

Arbitrary federal management of land out west is notorious.  It matters because the federal government owns between 30 to 60% of most western states.  The size of the federal debt is also notorious.  We can solve both problems with a single program.  The federal government should sell western public land to private parties in regular auctions to raise money to pay off federal debt.  This would help in two ways.  First, it would bring in money directly to the treasury.  But secondly, it would also place the land under the management of private owners who would have an incentive to develop and use the land productively.

Placing federal land under state ownership merely exchanges one bad landlord for another.  Worse, it strips the federal government of assets it can use to satisfy its creditors.  Selling the land is the best way to lessen the tax payers debt burden and at the same time put the land into more productive use which would generate economic growth and increased tax revenue without raising tax rates.

If Congress could tie the western land sales to the size of the deficits, it would be perfect.  All of the socialists who don't want to sell western land would face a dilemma.   If they did the usual borrow and spend, land would be sold to make up the difference.  If they budgeted responsibly, they could keep western land in government hands, but only at the cost of fewer votes purchased with federal free stuff.

Sell Federal Land, Balance the Budget

The way to open the West is to sell off federal land and use the proceeds to balance the budget. Compromise with liberals on spending as long as any spending in excess of revenue will be paid for by land sales which will specifically include timber and mineral rights. This would pay off in lots of ways. Sale proceeds would balance the budget. Liberals would have to make a tradeoff between spending and preventing more land sales. Once the land was in private hands, it would become much more productive than it is now under the Bureau of Land Management or the Forest Service. It would create jobs when the land is developed. It also will sound reasonable to everyone who is not a mean green.

Sell Off Federal Land

The recent shutdown has demonstrated the government's abuse of  power.  While we're noticing the Feds have too much power, let's also notice they own too much land.  We should sell off a lot of National Forest land.  The Feds do not need to own over half of any state, like they do in Arkansas, Utah or Nevada.  Besides, we're broke and we need the money.  Finally, when Henry VIII closed all the monasteries, England had explosive economic growth because the land was used more efficiently.  I wonder what privatization of a lot of land out west could do for the economy.