The federal government under the Obama administration has put the nation trillions of dollars further into debt, nationalized the banking system and taken over much of the automobile industry, unofficial Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron Micheli said Thursday.

These and other actions threaten Wyoming and its way of life, Micheli told the Natrona County Republican Women at the Petroleum Club.

The state's Republican congressional delegation -- Rep. Cynthia Lummis, Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso -- are doing what they can to slow the federal government, he said.

"What's the next line of defense?" Micheli asked.

"It has to be the states, the states have to push back," he said. "We are not going to be a part of this insanity coming out of Washington."

Micheli's philosophy on the states' roles comes from the nation's early leaders, he said.

The concentration of the intellectual skills of the founding fathers -- Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, John Adams and others -- was more than luck, Micheli said. "It wasn't lucky; it was divine providence."

America was a divinely chosen nation, the U.S. Constitution was divinely inspired, and the 10th Amendment was designed to limit the federal government's interference with the states, he said.

That has changed.

"There is nothing that threatens the lifestyle of you and I in the state of Wyoming more than our federal government," Micheli said. "And that's really sad."

He and his family are committed to running for governor in 2010, and he has experience in private business, the Legislature and the executive branch, he said.

Micheli served 16 years in the Legislature until his election defeat in 1992, and was director of the Wyoming Department of Agriculture from 1995 to 2003 in Gov. Jim Geringer's administration.

A rancher from Fort Bridger, he has formed an exploratory committee to seek his party's nomination to run for governor.

Micheli has not made a formal announcement, but he does have a Web site, has published a political brochure, and has hired staff for his committee.

No other Republicans or Democrats have formally announced their candidacy for governor. Gov. Dave Freudenthal's second term ends in January 2011.

Micheli told the Republican group that state government has grown because of the large budget surpluses.

"I personally believe that government is more efficient and prioritizes better when you don't have excessive budget surpluses," he said.

Besides controlling the size of government, Micheli said he will oppose the cap-and-trade bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in June. A cap-and-trade policy allows those who emit carbon to either reduce their emissions to meet prescribed targets, or they can trade and buy emission credits from those who can come in under the targets.

"It will bring our minerals industry to their knees," he said. "As a governor, I would be very active, first of all, that the cap-and-trade bill would fail; it's still up in the air and maybe this time next year it may be a done deal."

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at tom.morton@trib.com. Read his blog at tribtown.trib.com/TomMorton/blog.