As ThinkProgress reported Tuesday, GOP Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL) told Reuters that that one way to help close the nation’s budget deficit is to “start liquidating” public lands in Utah by privatizing large parts of the state (70 percent of the state is owned by the federal government).
Yesterday, while speaking at a news conference at KUED, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) was asked about Ross’s idea. Herbert at first was hesitant about the idea, saying that it’s “worth exploring.” He later went into a more full-throated defense of privatizing his own state’s land, going as far as to claim that the land would be better in private hands because private owners maintained Indian artifacts and burial grounds better:
Yesterday, while speaking at a news conference at KUED, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) was asked about Ross’s idea. Herbert at first was hesitant about the idea, saying that it’s “worth exploring.” He later went into a more full-throated defense of privatizing his own state’s land, going as far as to claim that the land would be better in private hands because private owners maintained Indian artifacts and burial grounds better:
