By Harold Pease, Ph.D The federal government desperately needs to diet. Much of our spending is constitutionally dubious and it is immoral to pass our national debt, now exceeding $21 trillion, to our yet unborn children. We need to return to
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The federal government desperately needs to diet. Much of our spending is constitutionally dubious and it is immoral to pass our national debt, now exceeding $21 trillion, to our yet unborn children. We need to return to constitutional limits to govern the distribution of our taxes. The one exception to the diet argument is national security. Without a physical barrier that works we cannot remain a country. History has demonstrated our southern border to be too porous and that only a physical barrier will work. "Kicking the can down the road" on border national security, as both major political parties have done for decades, only exacerbates the problem. Our national security now demands a wall. We've had 20 government "shutdowns" since 1977, according to the Congressional Research Service. Most Americans never knew when we were in one. In fact, "shutdowns" may be a good thing if they reduce the national debt, make expenditures more constitutionally based, or strengthen national security. Democratic opposition to a southern border wall (they advocate for open borders) has been the principle reason for the last two "shutdowns." Open borders is the "real" reason for their opposition but they know this will not sell with most Americans. The other two reasons are that a wall won't work and it costs too much. But walls do work. Look at any penitentiary. Many of those pushing the ineffective argument, hypocritically, live in gated communities. If walls (gates) did not work they would not live there. China's Great Wall successfully kept "barbarians" out for centuries and they built it with human labor-no earthmoving equipment-and over impossible terrain. Today's 143 mile steel border fence in southern Israel has stemmed the flow of illegal immigration by 99%, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (The Jerusalem Report, Herb Keinon, January 2, 2013). It "stopped the flood of African migrants into the country," ending "Sinai terror." At one time 2,300 people crossed each month but after the fence it dropped to 18, a 99% cut. Israel will be building other walls. The wall began in November 2010 finishing December 2012, changed everything. Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted, "President Trump is right. I built a wall along Israel's southern border. It stopped all illegal immigration. Great success. Great idea." Democrats argue that the wall costs too much but in the requested 2018 budget of $4.094 trillion, certainly five billion is but a drop in the bucket. Spending beyond our means has never been a deterrent for Democrats. In the 10-year Farm Bill of 2014, they gave $3.3 billion alone for a cotton income protection plan. Other gift giving in that nearly trillion dollar bill, considered pork by critics, included: "$2 million for sheep production and marketing, $10 million for Christmas tree promotion, $170 for catfish oversight, $119 million for peanut crop insurance, $100 million for organic food research, $150 million to promote farmers markets, $12 million for a 'wool research and promotion' program, and $100 million to promote the maple syrup industry." Ironically the 949-page bill spends about $1 billion dollars per page ($956 Billion Farm Bill Loaded with Pork, Your World Cavuto). We could easily fund the wall by ending the funding (ice cream cones) we presently give to the illegals after they illegally cross our borders, but the Democrats would never agree to this because they are presently purchasing future party affiliates. The non-partisan Center for Immigration Studies recently found that "63% of non-citizen households access welfare programs compared to 35% of native households," costing taxpayers an average of $73,000 per immigrant over his lifetime. In addition they found, "compared to native households, non-citizen households have much higher use of food programs (45 percent vs. 21 percent for natives) and Medicaid (50 percent vs. 23 percent for natives)." Plus illegals get cash. "Including the EITC, 31 percent of non-citizen-headed households receive cash welfare, compared to 19 percent of native household." If these funds were instead used to finance a wall, such would be easily funded. As far as the cost of the wall is concerned, a study released in September 2017 by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) revealed that, "At the federal, state, and local levels, taxpayers shell our approximately $134.9 billion to cover the costs incurred by the presence of more than 12.5 million illegal aliens, and about 4.2 million citizen children of illegal aliens." This, the report says, is a nearly $3 billion increase in the cost since 2013. It is also rather more than the single payment of $25 billion that it will cost to build a wall-five and a half times more, and every year." Consequently, "each illegal alien cost nearly $70,000 during their lifetime. Both studies show that funds presently given those who cross our border illegally could easily pay the $25 billion total cost of building the wall or five billion per year for five years for the same. This without raising a single penny from any new tax monies from our citizens. Looks like we need the wall for both national and domestic security. To get this apparently we have to have the Democratically imposed partial government shutdown. Let us keep the partial shutdown in place until we get a commitment from both parties for the whole $25 billion needed; or legislation to redirect the funding of illegals to the wall.
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Straightnnarrow
Thank you Dr Pease for your excellent column. What is obvious is that Congress, all 4 of our useless reps, won't vote to fund the wall and it doesn't matter what you or I have to say about it. So it will have to be funded by other means, El Chapo money, direct pay by citizens or executive order. But must be built!
Wednesday, January 9, 2019 Report this
Justanidiot
da us of a is still paying off wwii
Wednesday, January 9, 2019 Report this
Cat2222
Tell that to all the people who are still working without getting paid. Ask them how they feel about this standoff. If it was you, how would you feel trying to figure out how to pay your bills, feed your family, heat your home, etc.? All because of one mans pride and ego. What happened to compromise? Negotiation? Instead we have stonewalling from Mitchell and temper tantrums in the form of tweets from the POTUS. I am sick of all of this political posturing. Get these people back to work and PAY THEM! Surely we can figure out how to keep our nation safe without compromising hundreds of thousands of our own citizens. If we can't, these politicians need to go.
Tuesday, January 15, 2019 Report this
bendover
CAT, I will attach your comment in the letter I send to the families of the nearly 4,000 American citizens who have been killed by illegals in the last 3 years. For those who know what it is to fire a shot in anger, no explanation is necessary, for those that don't, no explanation is possible. That goes for these 4 useful idiots, Reed, Whitehouse, Langevine and Cicilline.
Tuesday, January 15, 2019 Report this
Cat2222
Bendover, you can go right ahead and do that. I stand behind what I said. I also tried to search for the 4,000 US citizens that have been killed by illegal immigrants in the past 3 years and I can't find any evidence to back up your statement. Are you using Breitbart or heritage.org as a source?
Here is the heart of the matter. Our own citizens deserve to be paid for work while politicians posture and preen. If you honestly think this is about real concern for people then I have a bridge to sell you. I am not sure how you equate the two together and I really don't know what you are trying to say about a gun and anger. Concessions from both sides will get this thing moving again. Compromise is what is lacking in our politics today. It is too polarizing. Let's get back to respectfully disagreeing with someone's opinion while still working together to get things done. Now that's the American Way!
Thursday, January 17, 2019 Report this
bendover
cat: www.OJP.USDOJ.GOV....A multitude of collection points and data...I had to use multiple links...Better off talking to a desk officer, if they are working.
Friday, January 18, 2019 Report this