Trump’s Wall

Dan Lombard argued that “a 3% transit tax over three years would pay for a wall.” Infuriated by the economically illiterate commentators who claim that the tariff would be passed on entirely to the consumer, Lombard said that a $700 washing machine crosses the border with a price tag of $400... the tariff is applied onto the $400 price tag... the company that makes the washing machine “will absorb the cost as the price of doing business.”

According to government trade data, Mexico exported $295 billion worth of goods to the U.S. in 2015: autos (74 billion), electrical machinery (63 billion), machinery (49 billion), agricultural products (21 billion), fuels (14 billion), plastics (17 billion), optical and medical instruments (12 billion)...

A trade deficit with Mexico is the excess of our imports over exports. U.S. goods trade deficit with Mexico was $58 billion in 2015 and U.S. services trade surplus with Mexico in 2015 was $9.2 billion. Mexico was the third largest supplier of goods to the U.S. in 2014...

U.S. foreign investment in Mexico totaled $107.8 billion in 2014 by nonbank holding companies, manufacturing, and finance/insurance...

... The pre-cast concrete wall will be 35-50 feet tall, costing an estimated $8-$12 billion. Of the 2,000 mile border with Mexico, 650 miles are already fenced and illegals have no problem climbing the existing barrier.

It is obvious to any traveler that Mexico must repair their own country and must stop using the United States as their social security blanket at the expense of American taxpayers...

As many have suggested, a tax should be levied on money wired to Mexico via Western Union, Money Gram, etc...

Most illegals, who do work hard and long hours, request to be paid in cash which means that they evade paying state and federal income taxes [as do their employers]...

Let’s assume that the 11 million illegal aliens^* that apparently have not grown in numbers in 20 years since the MSM has championed their cause, send home south of the border $1,000 per month, a sum total of one billion untaxed income earned while illegally in the U.S., a cool $12 billion a year...

But, for every illegal alien who is gainfully employed, if they are not here alone, he has a wife and children at home who are dependent on Medicaid and some or all of the thirteen U.S. Welfare Programs...

The welfare programs include:

• Negative income Tax (Earned Income Tax Credit or EITC, and the Child Tax Credit)
• SNAP (food program, formerly food stamps, but is now a debit card which is often abused)
• Housing assistance
• SSI (cash to low-income individuals)
• Pell Grants (up to $5,500 in grants to students from low-income households)
• TANF (cash for individuals moving from welfare to work)
• Child nutrition
• Head Start (pre-school program to low-income families)
• Job training programs
• WIC (healthy food to pregnant women and children up to five years of age)
• Child care (block grants to states and private agencies who administer child care programs to low-income families)
• LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program for heating and cooling)
• Lifeline (Obama Phone) – discounted phone service to low-income individuals....