First phase of Trump border wall gets $18 billion price tag, in new request to lawmakers

[riversedge]

Source: wash post





By Nick Miroff and Erica Werner January 5 at 7:27 PM

The Trump administration has told lawmakers that it wants $18 billion over the next decade for the initial phase of a Mexico border wall, laying out for the first time a detailed financial blueprint for the president’s signature campaign promise.

The money would pay for 316 miles of new fencing and reinforce another 407 miles where barriers are already in place, according to cost estimates sent to senators Friday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. If the work was completed, more than half of the 2,000-mile border with Mexico would have a wall or other physical structure by 2027.

Democratic lawmakers blasted the $18 billion request, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, and it arrived in the middle of delicate budget negotiations that include the risk of a government shutdown Jan. 20 if no deal is reached.

“President Trump has said he may need a good government shutdown to get his wall. With this demand, he seems to be heading in that direction,” said Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Immigration subcommittee. ........................................

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-border-wall-gets-18-billion-price-tag-in-new-request-to-lawmakers/2018/01/05/34e3c47e-f264-11e7-b3bf-ab90a706e175_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_borderwall-810pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.af639c649729

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Link to tweet

1:14
Trump's border wall prototypes go up

Prototypes for President Trump's promised border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border are on display as his administration still attempts to fund the project. (Reuters)

[underpants]

1. Yeah we....we'll take care of the concrete. We know a guy who's gonna make that happen.

[eppur_se_muova]

14. THIS is all any Repug "infrastructure" spending is about.

Billion$$$ for Friends Of The GOP.

[C_U_L8R]

2. An everlasting monument to a moron

and his minions. A beacon of buffoonery.
The dumbest, most pointless and inneffective vanity project, ever.

[Cosmocat]

10. YEP

a BIG part of this is that it is a vanity project for him ...

[notdarkyet]

13. It will be torn down the minute hes gone.

[Bleacher Creature]

3. I thought that Mexico was paying? The stable genius told me so. NT

[riversedge]

8. Several times the media has said that Trump is keeping his promise of building the Wall, BUT they

have NOT mentioned that he has NOT kept his promise of having Mexico pay for the wall.
I saw several clips of the rally crowd---cheering trump on when he said Mexico will pay. I wonder if it even phases trumps fans they will pay.

[briv1016]

4. What Mexican address should we mail the bill to?

[harun]

5. Can't wait for the Dem's with courage to run on "Tear down that wall!"

[duforsure]

6. Democrats should bring up his rally cry for Mexico

Dems should remind him Mexico is not the American people just so he understands, then say they'll never talk about or vote anything about a wall until he officially admits in public he lied to the American people about Mexico would pay for it.

[djacq]

7. Sad; Dreamers as hostages for a stupid wall.

[link:

|

[riversedge]

15. Indeed, that is what is happening.

[riversedge]

9. .Republican reaction was muted Friday. Even many Republicans have deemed a physical wall along the e

watch them lock in the vote to their supreme leader!


.............Republican reaction was muted Friday. Even many Republicans have deemed a physical wall along the entire border unnecessary and impractical, saying that more effective border security could be achieved through other means, including better surveillance and technology.

CBP said it would like to add more than 2,000 miles of what it called a “total Border wall system” that would eventually encompass 864 miles of new primary wall on land where no barrier currently exists. It would add 1,163 miles of replacement wall or secondary wall, which DHS officials said could consist of a wall backed by a fence or two fences.

Some of the new barriers would have to be installed along the winding banks of the Rio Grande, where landowners have protested construction of new fencing on their ranches and farms.

[Vinca]

11. Shouldn't that be converted into pesos since Mexico is going to pay for it?

[Weed Man]

12. This taxpayer suggests that we bill it to Trump, Inc. for full repayment.

Since they are stealing our funds anyway.

[Cold War Spook]

16. He wants to build a wall that has gaps?

When is he going to talk about the 1,600 mile wall he is going to build between the US and the Gulf of Mexico and how the Gulf of Mexico is going to pay for it. I can not remember reading any article about the wall that mentions that Mexicans own boats.

[raccoon]

17. I hope our Congresspeople don't go along with this bullshit. I posted this last March:

Today on NPR, Bill Richardson, who was governor of New Mexico, said that most people who come into the country illegally from Mexico are smuggled in on vehicles and that sort of thing. they don't just walk across the border.

I hope some one is listening to him. I guess he should know.

[D_Master81]

18. 18 billion???

I remember in the primary he said it would "probably cost 8 billion" if not less. Now for 700 miles of 2000 its over twice that?