Obama push to double conservation spending draws critics

[ProSense]

Obama push to double conservation spending draws critics

By By Rob Hotakainen,

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Toward that end, the president wants Congress to double spending — to $900 million next year — on a conservation fund that’s used to buy more property for the federal government. Currently, the government owns 635 million acres, or roughly three out of every 10 acres, with the largest chunk in Alaska.

But with the nation deep in debt and facing a long backlog of projects on its public lands, many Republicans are lining up against Obama’s plan, leaving its fate uncertain.

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Backers of the fund say it’s important for Congress to keep pumping money into it as the nation loses roughly 3 million acres to development each year. They say it’s a race against time, noting that a third of the nation’s developed land was developed from 1982 to 2007. The National Park Service has identified 1.8 million additional acres that it wants to acquire, at a cost of $1.9 billion.

When the president unveiled his plan in February as part of his “America’s Great Outdoors” initiative, he said the federal government must protect national treasures “even in our most trying times.”

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[rpannier]

1. the nation deep in debt

Yeah, right!
That's the excuse they're using this time.
During the Clinton years it was a land grab by the federal government.

If we weren't suffering economic problems, they'd be telling us how this will derail the economy

on edit: Glen Beck would be telling us that Obama was going to be using the land as a training center for his Commie-Nazi-Secular-Islamist training grounds.

[MBS]

2. do it, Barack, PLEASE. n/t

[asphalt.jungle]

3. you do realize it's not something he can just "do" right?

he can propose it and horse trade for it (and some other faction will get really pissed off if he trades their thing), but DO IT. that's not how it works.

[ProSense]

4. It has to get through Congress. n/t

[CreekDog]

5. true, but he can use the Antiquities Act

and accomplish some of the same preservation, much as Clinton did with Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah.

[vroomvroom]

6. Campaign Season has Begun! Left-Leaning Obama is Back! Welcome Home!