The $5.7 billion border wall: a relatively small budget item that has 800,000 federal employees on furlough and itchy Democrats smearing calamine lotion on their bodies to ease the chafing.
It appears the likes of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and effervescent man of the people, Senator Charles Ellis Schumer (D-NY), have forgotten that President Trump was swept into office by Americans who want tighter border security – a no-brainer policy that every citizen once understood to be critical to their own welfare. Somewhere along the way, Democrats took a dizzying 180-degree turn and now advocate for open borders.
With claims that a wall is too costly, un-American, and ineffectual, Swamp-dwelling leftist lawmakers refuse to admit the barrier is a necessity.
How Much Is Too Much?
The southern border between the United States and Mexico traverses four states and is approximately 1,933 miles long. A whopping one-third – 700 miles or so of tremendously harsh terrain – is deemed unprotected by barriers or border patrol personnel.
The Trump administration is planning on the combination of a man-made wall and natural barriers to seal the porous spots where traffickers, drug smugglers, and illegal immigrants enter the country. Various estimates have shown the cost could range between that of “one and a half aircraft carriers” to as much as $70 billion – according to alarmist Democratic staff members on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Yet Trump is only asking for $5.7 billion.
Actuaries have thrown their weight into the issue and have come up with a guideline of sorts, as reported by Fox News:
Size of the wall: 1,150 miles long; 40 feet high; 10 feet deep into the ground; 1 foot wide
Total volume of material: 11.2 million cubic yards
Materials: Approximately $8.7 billion in concrete (97 percent of the materials); approximately $3.6 billion in steel (3 percent of the materials)
Labor: Approximately $12.3 billion (given the labor costs on the original 654 miles of barriers we can assume a conservative 1:1 ratio of materials to labor)
Land acquisition: About 60 percent of the border is privately owned land. Based on previous purchases from the 2006-2009 wall construction, the cost at most would be $300,000 per mile acquired, or approximately $200 million altogether.
To give the American people the Wall they want would cost taxpayers close to $25 billion. Heck, the government could easily write that check if they would stop the nonsensical funding of begonias in Brussels ($704,000), wine glasses that sing ($5 million), and studying romance novels ($914,000).
But let’s review a few hefty expenses that lawmakers historically refuse to cut from the budget: $100 million every four years to subsidize political convention parties, $146 million for federal employees to upgrade their flights to business class, and the crowd pleaser of 2012, $120 million paid to dead federal employees – but then again, they probably still vote.
When it comes to Trump’s border barrier, add to the money already in the budget the $20 million in a Go Fund Me account raised by Brian Kolfage, a U.S. Air Force veteran. The Wall can easily be funded.
Walls Work
In 2006, the Secure Fence Act was passed with bipartisan support and succeeded in dramatically reducing the number of illegal aliens breaching the southern border, but over a decade later and an update is needed. “We certainly do need a wall. Talk to any border agent and they will tell you that,” Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost recently told reporters. Yet Speaker Pelosi stands firm in repeating, “A wall, in my view, is an immorality.” Well, except the one surrounding her personal estate. That wall isn’t going anywhere.
And the man Pelosi threw under the bus in line for her new speakership, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), admitted on Fox News that “obviously” walls do work. Some Americans agree and are standing firm in their resolve to build their “big, beautiful wall.”
A recent Rasmussen Reports national survey of likely voters finds that 46% say the “United States should build a wall along the Mexican border to help stop illegal immigration.” And that spells dire consequences for House Democrats as they dig in their heels during the longest government shutdown in history. Oh, that vexatious dilemma of allowing Trump to build America’s wall. Best the Democrats make a run to the pharmacy for a few extra bottles of the pink salve as this shutdown predicament is quickly intensifying the pesky prickling of public failure.
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