The Wall

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Silver
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The Wall

Post by Silver »

http://amarillo.com/national-news/news/ ... order-wall

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Posted July 27, 2017 04:53 pm
By ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press
House GOP passes $788B bill for Pentagon, border wall


FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2016 file photo, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent passes along a section of border wall in Hidalgo, Texas. The GOP-controlled House is plowing ahead on legislation to give the Pentagon a massive spending boost and deliver a $1.6 billion down payment for President Donald Trump’s oft-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed a $788 billion spending bill Thursday that combines a $1.6 billion down payment for President Donald Trump’s controversial border wall with Mexico with a whopping budget increase for the Pentagon.


The 235-192 vote both eases a large backlog of unfinished spending bills and gives Trump and his House GOP allies political wins heading into the August recess. Challenging hurdles remain in front of the measure, however, which will meet with more powerful Democratic opposition in the Senate.

The 326-page measure would make good on longtime GOP promises to reverse an erosion in military readiness. It would give veterans programs a 5 percent increase and fund a 2.4 percent military pay raise.

GOP leaders used the popularity of the Pentagon and veterans programs to power through Trump’s border wall.

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“Every single dime the President requested to start building a wall on our southern border he’s going to get,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. “Most importantly, we’re sending more to the VA to fix veterans’ health care and reform outdated VA systems.”

Still, a potential government shutdown battle over the U.S.-Mexico wall looms with Senate Democrats this fall. The generous defense spending increases also run afoul of strict spending limits set by an earlier budget law, and there’s been no progress on a bipartisan budget deal that would be a prerequisite for the higher spending to take full effect.

The House added Trump’s wall funding by a 230-196 procedural vote that denied angry Democrats an up-or-down vote. The wall gets low marks in public opinion polls and is opposed by many of the GOP’s more moderate lawmakers.

Trump promised at nearly every rally and campaign event that Mexico would pay for the wall. Mexico said no, and U.S. taxpayers will have to provide the money.

“The president has promised this funding, the American people want this funding, and today the House is making good on that promise,” said Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss.

Critics say that existing fencing is more than enough and that the portions of the border without it are too remote for crossings and that tribal law, environmental requirements, and personal property rights have blocked fencing for most of the rest.

“Nobody would know it from the President’s hysterical rhetoric, but there are already 700 miles of fence down there on the border — vehicular fencing, pedestrian fencing,” said Rep. David Price, D-N.C. “I know about it because most of that fencing was built when I was chairman of the homeland security appropriations subcommittee.”

Silver
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 5247

Re: The Wall

Post by Silver »

http://amarillo.com/editorial/opinion/2 ... ough-climb

Posted April 18, 2017 07:42 pm - Updated April 18, 2017 08:36 pm
By Amarillo Globe-News
Editorial: Trump’s wall logic is tough to climb

“I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me — and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”
- President Donald Trump in 2015

President Donald Trump is not the first politician to backtrack on campaign promises.

However, when bombastic braggadocio is one of the primary reasons you won election to the highest office in the country, and one of your biggest boasts (if not the biggest) was your claim you were going to build a wall on the U.S. southern border and make Mexico pay for it - you best deliver.

Well, Mr. President, we have marked your words, as you recommended.

Speaking of words, now comes word that Congress is considering funding this border wall. This was the headline from a recent post on thehill.com: “Sessions: Congress will fund Trump’s border wall.”

For starters, Congress does not “fund” anything. Congress can vote to allocate taxpayer money for this border wall, but Congress has no money to fund anything. It has taxpayer money.

This was the problem when Trump mentioned his border wall on the campaign trail - a constant theme which had many cheering. The concept did not make sense in 2015, and it is even more illogical now.

The president has requested $1.5 billion this year for the border wall and an additional $2.6 billion in 2018. The border wall project could cost anywhere from $10 billion to $25 billion.

We know the president enjoys a lavish lifestyle which spares no expense, but these numbers are “inexpensively” building a wall?

And how precisely does the Trump administration plan to make Mexico for over billions to repay this massive taxpayer expense? Specifics of the president’s repayment plan courtesy of Mexico are scarce.

The border wall is not the worst idea, and it does represent the most aggressive plan in decades to stop illegal immigration. However, Americans want realistic ideas and solutions and not baseless bragging that fails to deliver - and then leaves taxpayers with more bills to pay.

Silver
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 5247

Re: The Wall

Post by Silver »

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/wild-d ... quotes/14/

On building a wall
During his candidacy announcement speech in June 2015, Donald Trump first proposed the idea of building a wall along America's southern border, adding that, due to his real estate experience, he was uniquely qualified for the job:

"I will build a great wall -- and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me --and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."

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