Now, here’s a creative idea for building the border wall
The New York Post’s Michael Goodwin received a letter from one of his reader’s last week, a gentleman by the name of Nolan Thomson Hare. Concerned over the refusal of Congressional leaders to fund a border wall, Hare wrote: “Can you please give me a note about where I can find a campaign organized to collect money from the general public?”
Goodwin posed this idea to his readers and one suggested that if each of Trump’s 63 million voters contributed $80, the wall could be built.
Interesting.
I doubt that enough money could actually be collected, though. It’s one thing to support a policy in theory, it’s another to actually shell out money for it. The ratio of the number of people willing to personally fund the wall to the number of people merely in favor of the wall’s construction is unknown, but the second group is probably a great deal larger than the first.
I doubt that enough money could actually be collected, though
I dont… between big and small, america often surprises from the pocketbook
on another (unconfirmed) note:
Dr. Dean Lorich, an orthopedic surgeon who volunteered in Haiti and exposed Clinton Foundation corruption and malpractice on the island, has been found dead in New York. He was 54. Dr. Lorich was found by his 11-year-old daughter on the bathroom floor of his tony Upper East Side apartment with a knife in his chest at around 1pm on Monday. The knife missed the surgeon’s heart, leaving him to bleed out and be found by his daughter.
People fund things they want out of their own pockets all the time. The vast majority of Americans don’t demand that Congress build them a house or buy them a car. People pay for private school even though the public school is free.
In this case there’s no mechanism to ensure that a wall would be built if people contributed. The Federal government is the only entity allowed to do it, and the Federal government don’t wanna. Just as the Federal government is the only entity allowed to enforce immigration laws, and don’t wanna.
Plus, somebody would sue to prevent private money going to construct federal property.
I actually think Senator Schumer’s thoughts on this make more sense: “If Mexico Is Going To Pay For The Wall, We Don’t Have To”
Trump did promise that, right?
Ann:
Except that no one believed that particular promise.
A tax on remittances – money sent to people in Mexico – will fund the wall, and Mexico will pay for it. Immigrants legal and illegal send millions of dollars each month home to their families in Mexico. A 25% tax would not only fund the wall, but also encourage the illegals to GO HOME.
Except that no one believed that particular promise.
Ken Mitchell bent me to it. A tax on remittances is a nuclear alternative for Mexico and has not yet been proposed but still might be.
“beat me to it” Edit function not present.
Changing IRS regs is sufficient to impose withholding upon alien remittances.
Such regs are why you can’t cash out of a casino 100%.
You get a 1099 showing how much has been wired to the IRS on your account.
A January 2018 Vox piece:
The Vox link: https://www.vox.com/polyarchy/2018/1/29/16937762/trump-mexico-wall-honesty
Ken Mitchell and Mike K:
Exactly, and easy-peasy. Temporary and proposed regs under IRC Sec. 1446. and nobody gets credit for the withholding without his/her/its own, valid SSAN or EIN, e-verified in advance. In two years (statute of limitations for claiming a credit for taxes paid without filing a return) Mexico (and the rest of the world) pay for the wall.
No wall needed, simply use machine guns to mow down anyone (man, woman, or child) crashing the border. After a few thousands die, the rest stay home in their sh¦th@oles. Harsh, okay. But this an invasion of illegal aliens. They have no legal right, except to be repealed by any means we deem cost effectice.
Some, if not most, of the remittances to Mexico was untaxed in the US because it was earned off the books. So to put a 20% tariff on remittances would be fair. While Mexico might think they are paying, it is actually the Americans that pay, indirectly, the money.
Put me down for $250
How about just have people show up and lay down cinder blocks?
By my estimate a million people, can get a 50 foot high wall, 10 feet deep, in about a year and a half, just working weekends. And that’s assuming just 20 cubic feet a day, a 5ft by 4ft stretch.
You could have prison wardens bring the illegal immigrants to work on the wall.
You could give Dreamers credit if they work on it. How about 2 years of amnesty, plus another two weeks for every mile of wall that’s built?
Here’s an even more creative idea: instead of making Mexico pay for it, make sanctuary cities pay for it. After all, they’re incentivizing and enabling all the illegal border crossing.
Perhaps an income tax surtax on residents since they voted for it.
The money to pay for building the wall is not and never has been the issue. The political will is the issue. That the broad majority of Americans are in favor of enforcing the immigration laws we have, and stricter immigration laws, and the governing class is uniformly opposed, but during election years some percentage of it pretends not to be, that is the issue.
That the immigration and labor laws we have are unenforceable by design is the issue.
I have NEVER understood why building a wall on our border is a problem.
I’d contribute.
That is only a few days of NASA s budget.
I am strongly in favor of the, “A tax on remittances – money sent to people in Mexico – will fund the wall”(Ken Mitchell), solution. It would fund the wall, and act as a deterrent to those who come here intending to remit their earning back home from coming at all. If they are taxed for sending money out of the country they get less return on their effort.
I would also like to suggest that we get Congress to include any donations made for border security as tax deductible payments.
And, boy do I miss the old days when employers were responsible for assuring that their new hires were here legally, and were legally eligible for employment.
The combined effect of a strong border against illegal crossing and diminished returns for those who succeed in thwarting our attempts to keep them out should move us closed to our ultimate goal; zero illegal entry into OUR country.
If half of Trump voters gave $5 each that would fund a significant ad buy that could be run in targeted states and districts.
Where do I send my $80?
Frederick and Rick had some good ideas, but I especially liked this one:
MikeN on December 18, 2018 at 4:24 am at 4:24 am said:
You could give Dreamers credit if they work on it. How about 2 years of amnesty, plus another two weeks for every mile of wall that’s built?
* * *
That’s a sound political trade-off, and somewhat in the ballpark of what President Trump is trying to do (you give us the wall funding, then we give you DACA without strings).
However, as Frederick said, it’s the will of the Elites that is the bottleneck.
One reason the Uniparty is after Trump and trying to force him out is the threat to the consensus in Washington that unlimited illegal immigration is in their (not our) interest. As Mike Bloomberg once said, “Who will rake the sand traps ?”
In the building and landscape maintenance industries, prices would have to go up to pay American citizens. There are no American citizen dry wall installers, for example.
The reason why Silicon Valley is a Democrat funding machine is H1B visas.
A person in H-1B status must continue to be employed by their employer in order to stay in H-1B status. If the person’s employment ends for any reason, the person must leave the United States, unless the person applies for and is granted a change of status or finds another employer compatible with the H-1B status.
What is even more fun, American workers being displaced by H1B visa holders, were forced to train the H1B visa holders who were taking their jobs.
Information technology workers at Southern California Edison (SCE) are being laid off and replaced by workers from India. Some employees are training their H-1B visa holding replacements, and many have already lost their jobs.
The H-1B program “was supposed to be for projects and jobs that American workers could not fill,” this worker said. “But we’re doing our job. It’s not like they are bringing in these guys for new positions that nobody can fill.
“Not one of these jobs being filled by India was a job that an Edison employee wasn’t already performing,” he said.
That’s a public utility in California.
And the British voted to exit the European Union. Meanwhile, immigration/migration shifted the fulcrum of democratic leverage. The same thing is happening here, where Americans have been routed. For better or worse, if diversity or color judgments (e.g. racism) or so-called “identity politics” persist as a progressive condition.
Caesar Chavez and the United Farmer Workers (UFW) union were very effective at intercepting and preventing illegals from entering the US.
“Chávez’s UFW believed that unrestricted immigration undermined U.S. workers, and that the undocumented laborers were exploited. . . . In 1973, the United Farm Workers set up a “wet line” along the United States-Mexico border to prevent Mexican immigrants from entering the United States illegally and undermining the UFW’s efforts.” — UFW web site
[Many believe that the “wet lines” were very violent in their protection of the US border.]
Can a private organization defend the border? ¡Si, Se Puede!
Tax remittances at the source; 25% when the money order is purchased, just like a sales tax. Now, make that tax deductible on federal taxes,BUT ONLY WHEN THE TAXPAYER CAN PROVIDE PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP or a REAL green card.
IOW, only illegal immigrants (citizens of Mexico) would be paying the tax, QED: Mexico pays for the wall.
Aesop, you remind me another idea. We are told that these people come here because their own countries are so sub-standard; however they define that. Why not make a requirement for those who come in through DACA, (or any other form of amnesty), that once they reach the age of majority they begin training within a newly-created Peace/Job Corp type organization intended for and dedicated to giving these young people the tools to show the people of their native lands how to better themselves. They would be trained in whichever of several/many fields of their choosing with the idea that upon graduation from the, (shall we call it the Naturalized Homeland Rehabilitation Academy), NHRA(?) they move back to their country of origin and serve as instructors/consultants in agriculture, the legal system and human rights, medicine, literacy/general education, etc…
I present this idea in this flowery, even, nebulous form because any exact definition is not necessary to present the point, which is the concept of having those who entered illegally given only limited time to benefit from our example and then they must return to their homeland to improve the lives of the people of that place they left. Raising up the rest of the world is perhaps our surest way to eliminate the invasion of the downtrodden we now experience. Doing it ourselves becomes problematic, enabling those with a familiarity and connection to the place to do it…..
It would be very interesting if we could Patreon policy.
“Goodwin posed this idea to his readers and one suggested that if each of Trump’s 63 million voters contributed $80, the wall could be built.”
Clean simple solution, those who want it pay for it.
What if all the Congressional sexual harassment settlements paid by taxpayer money had to be matched? Then Timothy Geither could pony up the tax penalties he never paid. Let’s recapture our money.
Build the wall in a day, at no cost.
Make it 100 yards wide. Construct it of lead, and administer it with volunteers.