Episode 119 - Thinking Outside the Box on Border Funding

The Trump Administration thinks outside the box on border funding, and Democrats come up with the stupidest objections ever.  ON today's episode of the Hot Zone.

 

Hi folks, You know, you have to hand it to President Trump.  He campaigned on building a big beautiful border wall, and every day since he took office he's had hordes of democrats doing everything they can to keep him from making good on that promise.  They've refused to fund the project over and over, and so Trump has looked for more creative ways to get the job done.  By declaring an emergency along the Mexican border, he is attempting to use funds slated for emergency construction by the military to pay for the wall.  

 

Democrats are apoplectic.  They know that if the wall gets built, it won't ever get un-built.  Policies can change, but a physical barrier will stand the test of time and keep serving it's purpose, even under the next Democratic president.  And that drives the left crazy.  

 

The Administration is wasting no time putting up as many miles of border barrier as they can.  DHS fast-tracked the project by waiving certain environmental impact studies and such, but On Tuesday, the Democrat-controlled house appropriations committee voted not only to NOT fund the wall, but they voted to prohibit the Trump administration from using military funding to do so.  Today sometime a federal judge will probably issue an injunction against the border project to halt construction while two ridiculous lawsuits work their way through the court system.  One brought by the ACLU and something like 19 different states, many of which aren't anywhere near the border, and the other by the Sierra club, which says the environmental impact of the wall is just too great.

 

The Sierra club argument is one of the dumbest I've ever heard.  In my reporting along the wall I've seen the environmental destruction caused by the hundreds of thousands of migrants leaving their trash all over the place as they cross ranchers' land along the southern border.  When I was in New Mexico a few weeks ago I talked to ranchers who told me about the high risk of infections their cattle have to face from diseases being brought in on migrants's shoes.  this is a huge risk to the US food system, which makes it a national security issue.  The problem of a few antelope or coyotes not being able to cross the border at will is far outweighed by the very real costs to the US economy and national security by NOT building the wall.

 

But it doesn't matter.  These lawsuits don't have to make sense.  They just have to run out the clock.  If they can tie the Trump administration up in legal challenges for the next year and a half, they can keep the borders open, and in the meantime we'll see another one or two million people enter our country illegally at the rate we're going.  

 

This is unconscionable.  But it's the truth.

 

I am airing a piece about this later this week on CBN.  Check it out.

 

I believe that when gauging whether a wall would be effective, we should listen to the people who are on the front lines every day.  That's what my friend Heather Sells did a few weeks ago when she traveled to the border in San Diego and went out with the Border Patrol to see the effects of the new barrier for herself.  Check this out.

 

Okay, one last point I want to make about this.  Actually, two.  First.  The wall isn't all that expensive in the greater scheme of things.  Let's say it'll cost 12 billion.  Well, the government wastes nearly four billion a year on improper medicare payments.  Taxpayers have to pay more than 3 billion a year on upkeep for more than 3000 empty buildings the government is no longer using.  We could easily pay for the wall many times over just by cutting excess and outdated subsidies for agriculture.  So don't let anyone convince you the wall is just too expensive.

 

Secondly, there has been a lot of speculation about who is paying for these caravans that keep coming up from Central America.  Now I've done a lot of reporting on this, and have shown how left wing organizations, churches and even individuals are helping migrants travel several thousand kilometers north to our border.  But in reality you need to understand something:  in the end, YOU are paying for these caravans.  How so?  When migrants come into out country, many if not most of them qualify for various state and local programs and entitlements.  And they know how to game the system to take advantage of as many of those programs as possible.  We're talking about state and federal programs such as SNAP, TANF, CHIP, school lunches, housing assistance and much much more.  And it's a well known fact that much of this money, provided by US taxpayers, is then sent south via western union to latin america to help provide funds for additional family members to make the journey.  This is not fake news, it's not a hypothetical.  It is happening every day and it accounts for literally billions of US dollars per year.  So don't let anyone tell you the wall is too expensive.  That barrier will pay for itself in no time.  But from the looks of things, getting it built is going to take a miracle.

 

That's all I have for today folks.  Thanks for watching, and I'll see you back again tomorrow, on the Hot Zone.

 

End Notes: 

 

https://www.cagw.org/reporting/2018-prime-cuts#Government-wide

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/border-issues/2019/05/19/federal-judge-hears-arguments-challenge-trumps-border-emergency/3711736002/