All
this for a boondoggle project most Americans continue to oppose.
How
much of your money does Donald Trump want to pour into his xenophobic fantasy
of erecting an impenetrable wall on our Mexican border?
The
big-businessman-turned-president insists he doesn’t care about costs — just
build it! That seems to be a very un-businesslike approach, but then, it’s not
his money, is it?
For
those of you who do care, one measure of what the total tab might be is that
he’s demanding $1.6 billion from Congress to start construction. How much wall
will that buy? Seventy-four miles.
Now,
how long is that U.S.-Mexican border he wants to seal off? One thousand,
nine-hundred miles long.
So,
$1.6 billion down — and only 1,826 miles to go.
And let’s not even get into the cost overruns, fraudulent billings, shoddy materials, and other scams that the army of corporate contractors will add to the sticker price of Donald’s boondoggle on the border.
All
of this for a 1,900-mile divider of both physical and symbolic ugliness that
only an extremist minority of Americans support.
Besides being wildly expensive, this Trumpian folly isn’t needed and won’t
work. It stifles the border economy, tramples on property rights, destroys
sensitive environments, and autocratically separates millions of families and
communities.
It’s
an insult not only to the people of Mexico, but also to our own people’s
democratic values.
OtherWords
columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker.
He’s also the editor of the populist newsletter, The Hightower
Lowdown. Distributed by OtherWords.org.
