President Obama made history last year in a massive, 260 million acre expansion of national public lands and waters, more than any previous president in history, including Teddy Roosevelt. Apparently, the president wasn't satisfied with that milestone. He now has his sights on an additional two million acres in Utah where the federal government already controls 66.5 percent of the land.
"ATVs are destroying the deserts of Utah. I don't know if you know this, but motorbikes and ATVs are being brought out to the middle of the desert and they are destroying the desert," Glenn said sarcastically during his Tuesday radio program. "The earth will dissolve the highway system within a decade if we don't keep up with it, our cities will be gone in a century if we just let them decay, but the earth can't handle an ATV?"
"You're ignoring the looting of the antiquities. There's been six incidents of looting," Pat reminded Glenn.
"You're not saying these are confirmed though?" Stu questioned.
"Six confirmed instances in the entire West," Pat said definitively.
Naturally, government intervention is required to stop this travesty and save us from ourselves.
SIGN: Petition to Stop Bears Ears National Monument in Utah
"The president is doing another land grab, and this goes back to Teddy Roosevelt and the progressive movement Antiquities Act, which Barack Obama is quoting in this land grab," Glenn said.
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) joined The Glenn Beck Program to discuss this outrage and how to stop it.
"We're talking here about the proposed Bears Ears national monument, two million acres in San Juan County. I went down to San Juan County last week, and I climbed up to the top of the east Bears Ears Butte, and, you know, as far as the eye can see, in basically any direction would be included in this monument. I mean, this is bigger than Yosemite National Park by 700,000 acres. This is bigger than the state of Rhode Island," Senator Lee said.
The senator went on to explain that President Obama wants to issue a single proclamation under the Antiquities Act to control this enormous expanse of land. The Antiquities Act and the creation of national parks and monuments came out of the socialist progressive idea that land should be owned and controlled by the government and leased out to the people.
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"We think that's wrong. Local residents are against it, and so am I," Lee said. "This area is already overwhelmingly public land. The point here is that this is taking it up to another level. This is ratcheting it up more in terms of how the land is controlled, who controls it, and the deference and the discretion given to federal regulators in Washington, D.C. would be enormous."
Not surprisingly, the locals are not in favor of Obama's plan. For now, they can hike, fish, hunt, gather wood and live off the land --- but those activities would all be in jeopardy if the federal government says who goes where and when.
"I held a field hearing there last week. We had a capacity crowd. We filled up the entire high school auditorium. We had 700 people in an overflow room. We had 1200 people show up in San Juan County to express their views on this, and I invited people of all viewpoints. I invited Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, either to come in person or to send a representative. I invited people from the Bureau of Land Management, from the Forest Service. Not one of them showed up. And not one person who was there spoke in support of the national monument," Lee said.
SIGN: Petition to Stop Bears Ears National Monument in Utah
"Why is this president doing it now? What is his excuse?" Glenn asked.
"Well, his excuse is that this is beautiful. And because it's beautiful, we've got to protect it. And if we're going to protect it, we can't let the locals deal with it. We can't let the locals have access to it," Lee said. "And what could possibly go wrong with all this land being managed from Washington, D.C.?
Learn more and voice your opposition by visiting Senator Lee's website to sign a petition. One hundred thousand signatures are needed by August 14 to receive a response from the White House. You can also contact the Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell who previously promised Senator Lee that locals would be involved in any land decisions of this nature.
Senator Lee's new book Our Lost Constitution: The Willful Subversion of America's Founding Document is available at bookstores everywhere.
Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:
Featured Image: Photo of Bears Ear Butte in Utah taken by a U.S. government representative, courtesy of WikiCommons
