President Trump signed the papers today to set in motion the border wall between Mexico and the USA. His plan is to build the wall, and then the Mexican government is supposed to reimburse us for it. I admit that I was hoping he would divulge the way in which that might happen. Part of his plan is to stop federal funding of areas that provide sanctuary to unauthorized emigrants. Of course our Houston, Texas news states that we will not have this problem, since we of course follow all the rules. Hmmmmm ... What do you think will happen? It will surely provide more jobs.
One of the things that has been badly misrepresented by the news media is just how Mexico will be paying for that wall, and even though it is pretty simple, they still can't seem to get the right idea across. First they claimed that Mexico was just going to put up the money for us to build a wall, and people laughed. Trump explained in great detail that it will come from taxes and tariffs on Mexican goods coming into this country. This is why the automobile companies have decided NOT to open the plants in Mexico, because then their products would have a tariff that they would have to pay before selling it here. We have lived with the situation where China (and other countries) ships their products here and sells them so cheaply that our own products do not get purchased. Part of the reason for that is that businesses here have to pay so much taxes for their business that they then have to charge more when they sell them. Once the other countries have to pay a tariff out of their profits, and our own companies are taxed less, we will be able to have factories operating here again, jobs for more people, and our own American made items will be as affordable as buying Chinese or Mexican ones. Just as an example of how crazy this is, let me tell you about buying dog food. I was looking on Amazon to see if they had any good deals on the dog food that I like to buy for the dogs. The cheapest one was being sold by a Chinese company, and took a month to ship here. Since I was pretty sure that the dog food was being made right here in the US, this didn't make any sense to me. How could a product made here be shipped to China and then sold back to us cheaper than if I drive downtown to the feed store and buy it ? One of their dog food factories was in Arkansas, just a couple of states away from here, for heaven's sake ! I emailed the company, to see where their dog food was actually made, and they assured me it was made here, and in several states where they have facilities. They said that each buyer can set their own prices for the dog food once they buy it wholesale. So, apparently, the Chinese can buy our product at wholesale from here, have it shipped to them, and sell it back to us, cheaper than we can buy it right here. Something is terribly WRONG with this picture ! Once the other countries start paying to send their products here to sell, this situation will probably change, the money we make from the taxes and tariffs will more than recover what we spend to build the wall. Plus, the wall is being built with our materials and our workers, so it will be helping out this country just by us building it.
China's advantage in shipping is explained pretty well in this article. Under the Obama Administration, the United States Postal Service entered into an agreement with China that allows items to be shipped pretty much for free from China, giving China a major advantage over U.S. companies in shipping to the United States.
I have some problems with this wall business. Has no one figured out that enterprising Mexican citizens having the wherewithal to do so, will dig tunnels under this wall? It's, what, 700 miles long? Preposterous! Frank
Nothing will be perfect, Frank. However, as it is or was, even before Obama, people were just walking across the Rio Grande into Texas.
@Ken Anderson True, that. But can we justify the incredibly high cost of building a non-easily scalable wall 700 miles long, when our leadership has spent us into near bankruptcy already? Would sanctions possibly coerce the Mexican government enough to pay for building it? Mexico's GDP is very large. Squeezing it with sanctions would hurt the Mexican people NOT trying to cross the border more than it would those seeking a better life here, IMO. What would we build this wall out of? How high? Impenetrable by a bulldozer blade? As you state, perfect, I cannot expect perfection, however, a reduction of infiltrees by a factor of 1/2, could not justify the enormous cost. Let's say just for grins, the wall is masonry construction, steel reinforced, what, 20 feet high? Drag all those building materials into the middle of nowhere, excavate deeply to support all this, a gut guess on my part is $10,000 per foot. It comes to $37 BILLION dollars. 37 million million. How can that possibly be justified, when those funds need to be spent in places far more relevant than building a wall?? Or, maybe we revert back to the previous government interdiction: no blocks shall be placed to impede unlimited spending. Sure, I'm a hard-headed opponent of "policy". Admittedly. Considering the lack of need for a wall blockading our other neighbor from us, and in consideration of their concern for our continuing "Canado-Americo" intimacy, how about the Canadians split the cost of the Mexican-American wall with the Mexicans? No more ridiculous a solution, IMO, than the wall itself. Frank
If Mexico doesn't "play ball" with us, there are other things we can start withholding from them. I watched all the news today as well Ina, and wondered how it was going to happen too. Thing is, if we stop trading with Mexico, they'll get poorer, and wouldn't have the money to pay us back. I still have the same faith as always for President Trump being the best man for the job, but I also know that it will take a lot of work, and time to accomplish all he wants to. I know some folks are not going to like us getting tough on Mexico, or any of the other immigration issues, but I believe we have to save our own country first. It's always made sense to me that if we don't have anything to give to anyone, how can we help others. Our Veterans are suffering, and we have a lot of folks out of work, especially with families and we have got to get our focus on helping them before other countries. Obama has turned lose 1000s of criminals in the US. I have no idea where they are, or what they are doing but I suppose no one will get up in arms unless someone in close to them gets killed. I don't understand why on things like this, the "left" won't stand with us on things like this, just doesn't make any sense. Their also going to build detention housing/buildings for those they arrest. Before the law had no place to incarcerate all the illegals coming across. Now we'll have that as well. President Trump talked about all the people that are going to be hired to work with the Border Patrol, and something called ICE I think it is. Thank God, more jobs, and more help. No one can do the job unless the dang government gives them the tools and manpower they need. Glad we are getting some people in place that are "doe'rs" not just flappin their jibs, and sure don't see where they were giving a damn about the people. Like Trump says, the forgotten men and women.
No matter who pays, the cost of the wall will be cheap compared to the costs we now pay for illegals who come here .The jobs it will provide will help a lot of people too.
I must say.........I totally agree with the building of the wall, period. Something has to be done about the immigration problem here and President Trump is just the man to do it. I did see something on the news about how some countries don't like the saying, "America First". How do I feel about that? Tough! We have done, and do, quite a bit for other countries, so it's about time we do things for US! I didn't really before, but now, I definitely support President Trump. For wife and I, it's two BIG "thumbs up" for him.
Sanctuary Cities: It seems they only give sanctuary to non citizen criminals. This is not fair, they should give sanctuary to all criminals regardless of citizenship, race, religion, or crime committed.
Agree ! - All countries should put their people first - hope his example shows the others where they went wrong !
Have you ever looked to either side of the road while you're driving along the freeway? We have walls all over the country. I am quite confident that the technology exists to build a wall. @Frank Sanoica, you seem to be suggesting that we're going to lay off everyone who is currently patrolling our borders and rely upon the wall alone. That's not the case, and there is also such a thing as surveillance technology. If we can afford to drop bombs overseas, we can afford to build a wall. If we can afford to send billions of dollars to people who hate us, we can afford to build a wall. If we can afford to equip our friends and enemies alike with weapons, we can afford a wall. For that matter, if we can afford to pay our elected politicians the kind of money we're paying them, we can afford a wall.
Everything is true that you say, @Ken Anderson. Also, just enforcing the existing laws that we do have will help. If I was Trump, I would start with deporting all the ones that have committed crimes...nobody should be upset about that.