Trump’s border wall boast runs into budget maw

[Elderberry]

Houston Chronicle by Kevin Diaz 8/25/2018

Rallying cheering supporters in West Virginia, President Donald Trump called border security the “beating heart” of this election and suggested to the faithful that he has $3.2 billion for his long-promised border wall.

“The wall — right now, that wall is coming along. We’re over $3 billion, it’s moving along very nicely. Very nicely,” Trump told a packed arena in Charleston on Tuesday night.

Left unsaid was that Congress has approved only half that amount, and that the battle for more money comes amid the threat of another government shutdown — possibly at the end of September, scarcely a month before the November midterm elections which could serve as a referendum on his first two years in office.

Of the $1.6 billion Congress allocated for border security this year, almost all was to reinforce and expand existing barriers — not the wall that Trump campaigned on. In a further setback for the administration, a government watchdog agency found this month that the wall prototypes commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security would not always work for the rugged terrain along the Mexican border.

Environmental challenges also are pending in the courts.

Nevertheless, Trump has maintained on several occasions in recent months that work on the project is well underway.

“We’re getting the wall built. It’s going up, we’re getting it built,” Trump said to more applause in West Virginia. “So we have $3.2 billion. We’re looking for $5 billion this year, and all of a sudden it’s going to be finished and it’s going to be very, very effective.”

The political reality, however, looks very different.

Trump’s new push for $5 billion is more than double the $2.2 billion the administration asked for in its latest request in June, upping the ante substantially ahead of an election that could determine control of Congress.

While the House Republican majority has proposed $5 billion in a 2019 spending bill, the Senate has proposed $1.6 billion in funding to beef up existing barriers. Even that is subject to negotiation, given that Republicans would need the votes of at least nine Senate Democrats to get the 60 needed to pass a major spending bill.

“We’ll do everything we can to get the president’s demand,” said Texas U.S. Sen John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the chamber. “But in the end, obviously there’ll have to be some negotiation taking place.”

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/texas/article/Trump-s-border-wall-boast-runs-into-budget-maw-13179811.php

[Chosen Daughter]

Maybe he can pay off all the politicians to keep his lies about the wall secret from the public.  If a few miles is coming along nicely he and I have a different idea of coming along.

If people knew that it is mostly about reinforcing existing walls maybe they wouldn't be cheering.

[kevindavis007]

I thought that Mexico was going to pay for the wall..

[Emjay]

Maybe he can pay off all the politicians to keep his lies about the wall secret from the public.  If a few miles is coming along nicely he and I have a different idea of coming along.

If people knew that it is mostly about reinforcing existing walls maybe they wouldn't be cheering.

@Chosen Daughter   We should all be thankful that Trump cares about protecting America from what has happened in Europe and, sadly, England, where muslims have overrun countries.

If Hillary had been elected, she would have gone along with the 'we love illegal aliens' movement and the whole country would have been designated a sanctuary country.

I am grateful that our President sees the danger in illegal immigration and is fighting against it.

A wall can't magically appear so those of us who are impatient should consider contacting our congress critters and telling them how strongly we feel about this.

[corbe]

   Trump and his GOP Party are beholden to the Chamber of Commerce, which is against 'The Wall', EVerify and tougher Immigration laws.

   Unless you're starving for red meat, It is delusional to believe any of his crap statements, particularly, if spoken at a campaign rally.

[Night Hides Not]

   Trump and his GOP Party are beholden to the Chamber of Commerce, which is against 'The Wall', EVerify and tougher Immigration laws.

   Unless you're starving for red meat, It is delusional to believe any of his crap statements, particularly, if spoken at a campaign rally.

A picture worth 1000 words:

[Emjay]

   Trump and his GOP Party are beholden to the Chamber of Commerce, which is against 'The Wall', EVerify and tougher Immigration laws.

   Unless you're starving for red meat, It is delusional to believe any of his crap statements, particularly, if spoken at a campaign rally.

Ooooh, scary.  The bad @corbe emerges.

[corbe]

   Bad meaning Good or the other BAD?  @Emjay

[Chosen Daughter]

@Chosen Daughter   We should all be thankful that Trump cares about protecting America from what has happened in Europe and, sadly, England, where muslims have overrun countries.

If Hillary had been elected, she would have gone along with the 'we love illegal aliens' movement and the whole country would have been designated a sanctuary country.

I am grateful that our President sees the danger in illegal immigration and is fighting against it.

A wall can't magically appear so those of us who are impatient should consider contacting our congress critters and telling them how strongly we feel about this.

Are you for real?  Trump is mostly fixing existing fence.

[Chosen Daughter]

Q: Has President Donald Trump started building the wall between United States and Mexico?


A: Congress approved $1.6 billion to replace existing barriers and add some fencing in new areas. The new barriers are not concrete and not like any of Trump’s wall prototypes.



FULL QUESTION

Has Trump started building the wall between USA & Mexico?

FULL ANSWER

Since the omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2018 passed in late March, President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed his long-promised wall is now under construction.

“We’ve already started building it,” Trump said in West Virginia on April 5. “We have a billion-six. We’ve started building it and fixing miles and miles of wall that’s already up — and fence. And we’re going to have our wall.”

“We’ve started building the wall,” he proclaimed in remarks with Baltic leaders on April 3.

“We started building our wall,” he said in Ohio on March 30. “I’m so proud of it. We started. We started. We have $1.6 billion, and we’ve already started. … We have $1.6 billion toward the wall, and we’ve done the planning.”

By contrast, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, founder of the House Freedom Caucus, said of the omnibus bill, “The one thing we don’t fund is the one issue we all campaigned on — a border security wall — and that is not in the legislation.”

And here’s House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s version of what the bill does: “Democrats won explicit language restricting border construction to the same see-through fencing that was already authorized under current law.”

Those seemingly conflicting statements may lead to some confusion. One of our readers asked, “Has Trump started building the wall between USA & Mexico?”

The short answer is that the omnibus bill funds some new fencing, though far less than Trump had hoped it would. The new barriers are also not the kind of solid, concrete wall Trump once described during the campaign. Nor is it anything like any of the prototypes Trump visited in mid-March.

Trump and others in his administration are calling what is going up “the wall.” The omnibus describes it as “fencing.” Some may say that’s a matter of semantics, and indeed many officials and journalists use the terms interchangeably. But Trump has often insisted there is a difference between a fence and wall, and that he’d be building a wall.

Finally, Trump officials say the omnibus will fund about 100 miles of “new” wall, but most of that is replacing existing border fencing deemed inadequate or dilapidated.

Let’s take a deeper look at what the bill does and does not fund for barriers along the border with Mexico. And then let’s dig deeper into what Trump promised.

What’s in the Omnibus?

Has the Border Wall Begun?


By Robert Farley

Posted on April 13, 2018


On March 23, Trump signed the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill (also known as the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018), though he said there “are a lot of things that I’m unhappy about in this bill.”

Although Trump had asked for $25 billion for wall construction, the bipartisan spending bill provides what Trump called only an “initial down payment” of $1.6 billion in funding. But even that sum comes with significant strings attached.

Here’s what that $1.6 billion is for (see Section 230, starting on page 673):
•$251 million for “secondary fencing” near San Diego.
•$445 million for “primary pedestrian levee fencing” in the Rio Grande Valley.
•$196 million for “primary pedestrian fencing” in the Rio Grande Valley.
•$445 million for replacement of primary pedestrian fencing.
•$38 million for border barrier planning and design.
•$196 million for border security technology.

The bill further states that the money can only be used to build “operationally effective designs deployed as of the date of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017, [May 5, 2017] such as currently deployed steel bollard designs, that prioritize agent safety.”

Readers may recall Trump on March 13 toured eight wall prototypes — which you can see here — that he had put out to bid early in his presidency. The language in the omnibus bill precludes funding for any of those designs.

In a March 30 briefing, Customs and Border Protection Acting Deputy Commissioner Ronald D. Vitiello said the spending bill will fund about 100 miles of “border wall system,” though he added that “does not fully fund our needs in the most critical locations.”...........


https://www.factcheck.org/2018/04/has-the-border-wall-begun/

[GrouchoTex]

There were some, and they'd fight you at the drop of a hat if you didn't, actually believed that there was going to be a wall stretching from Brownsville to San Diego.
Some still believe Mexico is going to pay for it.
I do like that the border is being as closely watch as it has been in my memory.
Who knows? Maybe if the new trade agreement with Mexico is beneficial to its citizens, less may find the need to go north.
Unfortunately, the past shows that the governments there will benefit, over its own people.

[LegalAmerican]

I thought that Mexico was going to pay for the wall..

Why does this have to be explained, for over two years now??   TARIFFS ON MEXICO. that was always the plan, since 2015, and explained on his internet site.  Why do we go through this over an over again?  THAT should be the questioned asked.
Then the wall is already being built. Built and repaired in San Diego. Why do some people on here think , it is an instant wall?  Just add,,,water poof!  Magic wall built. Actually, I've been explaining it since June 2015, yet, here comes the same "question".
Every day, every thread, any Trump issue.  Why is that?   

[LegalAmerican]

Ooooh, scary.  The bad @corbe emerges.

lol. Not worth talking to all the anti-Americans. Never Have I seen so many people push for their OWN DEMISE!  NEVER.  a lot of hypocrites on here claiming to be Christians. Not talking about you.   

[GrouchoTex]

Why does this have to be explained, for over two years now??   TARIFFS ON MEXICO. that was always the plan, since 2015, and explained on his internet site.  Why do we go through this over an over again?  THAT should be the questioned asked.
Then the wall is already being built. Built and repaired in San Diego. Why do some people on here think , it is an instant wall?  Just add,,,water poof!  Magic wall built. Actually, I've been explaining it since June 2015, yet, here comes the same "question".
Every day, every thread, any Trump issue.  Why is that?

No, if tariffs are placed on products Imported from, Mexico, it would be we, the American people who buy those products, that would be paying for the wall, not the Mexicans.

[Axeslinger]

lol. Not worth talking to all the anti-Americans. Never Have I seen so many people push for their OWN DEMISE!  NEVER.  a lot of hypocrites on here claiming to be Christians. Not talking about you.   

@LegalAmerican
Good...no reason for you to stay then.  Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

[corbe]

                          You stop right there, Lady.

[LegalAmerican]

https://www.factcheck.org/2018/04/has-the-border-wall-begun/


Factcheck is the same group as SNOPES. A RADICAL LEFT, LEANING organization , that will spin anything they can as far left and lying as they can.
 Funded by Annenberg foundation, which is BILL AYERS.  The home spun terrorist, who bombed one of our political buildings.  I can't remember every detail for the "correctors' on here.  The point is.  RADICAL LEFT LEANING. NOT RELIABLE SITE.  I would think, "Christians" would want the truth and help save our country and constitution, not keep bashing our best president ..EVER.  Faux christians.
I guess some women on here want wear burkas?   I don't.  Very foolish people today in 2018.

[LegalAmerican]

No, if tariffs are placed on products Imported from, Mexico, it would be we, the American people who buy those products, that would be paying for the wall, not the Mexicans.

Not this minute. It is coming.  This was explained too, so I give up.  TARIFFS PAID BY MEXICO,,WHO WANT TO BRING THEIR PRODUCTS,,,HERE. If it costs too much for American people, we don't have to buy it.

[GrouchoTex]

                          You stop right there, Lady.

@corbe

Anti- American?

@LegalAmerican

You wouldn't be so quick to throw that out there, if you knew more about Corbe's history.

[kevindavis007]

Why does this have to be explained, for over two years now??   TARIFFS ON MEXICO. that was always the plan, since 2015, and explained on his internet site.  Why do we go through this over an over again?  THAT should be the questioned asked.
Then the wall is already being built. Built and repaired in San Diego. Why do some people on here think , it is an instant wall?  Just add,,,water poof!  Magic wall built. Actually, I've been explaining it since June 2015, yet, here comes the same "question".
Every day, every thread, any Trump issue.  Why is that?

You really don't know s**t about economics. It will be the American consumer who will pay for the Tariffs not Mexico.

[GrouchoTex]

Not this minute. It is coming.  This was explained too, so I give up.  TARIFFS PAID BY MEXICO,,WHO WANT TO BRING THEIR PRODUCTS,,,HERE. If it costs too much for American people, we don't have to buy it.

LOL, and if "we don't have to buy it" no tariffs are paid, thereby no wall.
Again, it would be Americans paying the tariffs on the goods sold.
You should give up, because it is obvious you have no clue on how tariffs work.

[kevindavis007]

Not this minute. It is coming.  This was explained too, so I give up.  TARIFFS PAID BY MEXICO,,WHO WANT TO BRING THEIR PRODUCTS,,,HERE. If it costs too much for American people, we don't have to buy it.

Then no money for the wall.

[mystery-ak]

https://www.factcheck.org/2018/04/has-the-border-wall-begun/


Factcheck is the same group as SNOPES. A RADICAL LEFT, LEANING organization , that will spin anything they can as far left and lying as they can.
 Funded by Annenberg foundation, which is BILL AYERS.  The home spun terrorist, who bombed one of our political buildings.  I can't remember every detail for the "correctors' on here.  The point is.  RADICAL LEFT LEANING. NOT RELIABLE SITE.  I would think, "Christians" would want the truth and help save our country and constitution, not keep bashing our best president ..EVER.  Faux christians.
I guess some women on here want wear burkas?   I don't.  Very foolish people today in 2018.

*Lighten up Francis*...sheeeesh!

[Wingnut]

*Lighten up Francis*...sheeeesh!

She takes me back to the bad old place whenever I read her screeds. 

[corbe]

   The glass is always half full, I'm rather enjoying the fact that she likes Trump way, way, way more that Cruz and will admit it.