Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing
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I am not one of those people who want to shrink government to a size where it could be drowned in a bathtub. That said, I have had more than enough “assistance” from the government on FISA, the Patriot Act, the Schiavo debacle and on and on. I do not need any assistance from the government to bail-out billionaires.
Cry me a river.
One thing I have not seen a lot of chatter about is how we are going to pay the national debt, plus all the non-discretionary line items like Social Security, and Medicare. Once the Treasury is empty, Americans have nothing but personal debt left and there is nothing left to the value of America, what is left to sell, leverage or exploit to pay off the Reaganomics inspired spending? Public land.
A few years ago, I read an economic report on the real estate value of national parks and forests in California. For the life of me, I cannot find that report on the web. The base idea (a GOP idea I bet) was to sell off select national parks and monuments like the Presidio and Yosemite to land developers. The report took the value of the land near these parks and calculated the real estate value of these areas and concluded that the value of these lands was sizable – close to a trillion dollars.
If this bail-out goes through, will it be the tipping point for the US economy? Will we need to start auctioning off chunks of America’s land trust to the highest bidder?