[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12531]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   LET AMERICANS OWN SOME OF AMERICA

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. In this time of money crisis, we talk about the 
fact that we need revenue. Congress seems to be addicted to taxation as 
a form of revenue. But there's another way to raise revenue. Did you 
know, Mr. Speaker, that 27 percent of the land owned in the United 
States is owned by Uncle Sam? Fifty-two percent of it in the West is 
owned by Uncle Sam. How much is that? That's the size of all of Western 
Europe. So maybe we ought to think about Uncle Sam selling some of that 
land to Americans, not the National Parks, not the wetlands, these 
sensitive areas, but that land owned by the Bureau of Land Management 
that is not in use now. And then we sell that land, some of it, and 
then it will be revenue-producing because the people who buy it will 
pay taxes. Local taxes go to schools and help those schools. Something 
to think about. In this time of raising revenue, maybe Uncle Sam could 
do without 27 percent of all of the land in America. Let Americans own 
part of America, not just the Federal Government.
  And that's just the way it is.

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