Government Land Grab

I have been working very hard to kill Cap & Tax. I took the time to actually read the bill, as it was posted on the House web site. What is truly in this piece of legislative garbage should frighten every real American to their very soul!! Our great nation was founded on personal liberty and the greatest manifestation of liberty is the right of citizens to own property. Tucked in the back of this bill is additional massive funding for the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture to purchase land and land rights for nearly any imaginable "environmental" purpose. One of my favorites listed was to secure land to ensure continuous migratory paths for wildlife. This land grab is nothing new. In the county where I live in Iowa, the government now owns or controls about 25,000 acres, the equivalent of a township, and it has been going on for several years.

The DNR is acquiring the land one farm at a time with funds they already receive for land acquisition. Most of this land is not sitting in an idle, natural, "environmental" state. If the land is tillable, the DNR is leasing it out to farmers for crop production. These aren't organic farmers, they are using the same GMO seed and chemical fertilizers and diesel-fueled tractors that all productive for-profit farmers are using. This doesn't sound to me like there is any special environmental protection going on here. What happens to the lease revenues? It goes into the acquisition fund. One of the most recently acquired parcels was heavily wooded. The DNR has had the oak, cherry, hickory, walnut and any other marketable tree logged from the parcel. HMM..cutting down trees? I thought we needed to save every tree to combat greenhouse gasses that are destroying the planet? How does this fit into clean energy legislation or combating climate change? Where did the money go from the sale of these trees to the logging company? It went into land acquisition. All of this information is publicly available. It is usually found in tiny print in the back of your local newspaper. The county conservation board is required to publish its revenues, expenditures and meeting minutes. To add insult to injury, when land is owned by the government, it is exempted from property taxes. So, as the government purchases land, the tax base is reduced and private property owners are taxed more for their property to cover the funding for the county's needs. This is the truth of what is really going on. This bill is not going to protect the environment. It is a straight-up socialist takeover of private property.

Indulge me while I tell you a true story of real land stewardship. About 17 years ago, my husband's aunt and uncle bought a neglected farm just north of a tiny little town that hadn't seen any development in years, but the hunting in the area is phenomenal. I think it was about 150 acres. The house was not habitable, the barns were falling down, the fields had been let go, the woods overgrown and there was even a dump on the place full of old cars and general junk. Over the years, the house has been restored and the barns repaired or replaced. The junk was cleared away by a group of teenage boys one summer. The boys were looking for work and our uncle told them that if they cleared the junk pile, they could keep the money they received from selling the scrap metal. What a creative, win-win deal! Aunt S and Uncle R also invested in equipment and revived the fields so they are now again productive. On the newly cleared hillsides, over 800 trees were planted to solve erosion problems and provide wind breaks. In the woods, areas that were too thick or overgrown were logged and the woods are healthy again. Uncle R loves to hunt and fish, so 2 ponds were built where none had existed before and have been stocked with fish and are now home to ducks and geese. Grassland areas have been planted and are now thriving with pheasants. The restoration of the old farm is not the end of the story, though. They have subdivided the farm, keeping about half as their homestead and the other half was divided into 8 lots, one lot being about 40 acres and the other seven lots averaging about 5 acres. Six of the lots have been sold and now have homes that are all in the $250k and higher range. There has been a third pond built, more trees planted and these small acreages are thriving from the pride of ownership from the new residents. In a tiny little community that hadn't seen new development in years, the economy has been stimulated with the addition of $1.5M to the property tax base, the hiring of workers to build the homes, the sale of compact tractors and implements, the sale of building materials and landscape supplies, the list goes on and on. The vision of this one couple for this old farm has been realized and the environment and the community are all better for their hard work. My husband and I were blessed to be able to buy one of these lots and build our home. We love watching the deer, turkeys, pheasants, foxes and other birds and creatures that share the property with us.

Once again, the solution to any problem facing our country IS NOT in turning it over to the idiots in Washington to control. Real solutions come from people being free to work hard to achieve their dreams. It is possible to drill for oil or build a nuclear power plant and still be good stewards of the land.

Stand with me and tell your senators to vote NO on H.R. 2454. There is a flyer available in an earlier post that I wrote and passed out to fellow attendees at a July 4th Tea Party. Please print it out and share it with others who want the truth.

Happy Birthday, America!

The 4th of July this year has new meaning for me. I have discovered a new, and indeed passionate, love for my country and the principles on which it was founded. Freedom truly is not free. We must fight for it every day. As Abraham Lincoln said, "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." I have learned that this is so true. The biggest enemy of freedom is apathy.

I plan to celebrate Independence Day by attending a Tea Party with my family and meeting other Americans who still believe in the vision that has endured for 233 years. As a nation, we are at a crossroads and the path we choose right now, at this moment, will either preserve that great vision or will move us in an entirely different direction.

America is blessed. America is special. America is the Shining City on the Hill. I truly can't comprehend why our current President and current Congress is running hell-bent for socialism and the failed policies and abject mediocrity of other countries. America IS the standard that the free world strives for and it is the hated enemy of those who seek to enslave and oppress. There is no better gift that I can give to my country than my heartfelt and sincere effort to preserve the great vision from which she was created.

I'm sure I'll also find time to eat a hotdog, watch some fireworks and burn some sparklers, too!!

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Tea Party Flyer