Timothy Birdnow

Writing at Americans for Limited Government, Michael Banon argues we should make the border wall pay for itself. His idea is to cut off aid to aliens and apply that to the wall building. Not a bad idea.

But it doesn't really profit us. If we're going to do something like a wall, why not make it work for us and not just cost us money? I have a modest proposal.

Who here remembers the movie Escape from New York? In this '80s flick a decrepid New York City has been turned into a maximum security prison, with Manhattan ringed by patrol vessels and the tunnels and bridges barricaded. People given life in prison would be dumped on the island via helicopter, never to leave. Roving gangs own the streets. When Air Force One goes down on the island an ex con named Snake Pliskin (Kurt Russell) must rescue him or die trying.

The real star of the movie isn't Russell or Lee Van Cleef or Donald Pleasance but rather the city itself. It gets one to thinking....

If we are going to build a huge, thousand mile long wall anyway, why not put it to good use; build a giant prison along the southern border in uninhabited territory. Toss all the derelicts, miscreants, and dirtbags inside, and they can act as passive defenses for our country. We will already have built one side of the prison, so it will radically reduce costs. Why not do this? We have to have prisons anyway, and we are going to build a wall/fence precisely to keep people out. We could build a chain of prisons along the southern border and sell off the current crop of federal penitentiaries that now dot the American landscape. It would provide work for the inhabitants of the border region (who now suffer from economic problems caused by the unsafe environment of the border) and it would put armed men on the walls to not just watch the prisoners but the border as well. Kill two birds with one stone.

And so much of the border is waste land or nearly so; prisoners escaping would have a tough time. They aren't going to want to go into Mexico so the route of excape is narrowed down for the authoritiess.

This is an idea whose time has come! It is an efficient use of our resources and makes the criminals - who owe a debt to society - perform a useful if passive service to our country.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but my vision will hopefully stop the DREAMERS!

Here is the original article by Banon

By Michael Banon

Wall tweets! Wall news stories. Wall interviews. Who, oh who, will pay for that damn wall? Those who want the wall argue about how to pay for it. Those who don't want the wall argue that no one will pay for it.

But the answer is easy. Make the wall pay for itself.

President Trump has estimated the wall could cost $10 billion. A report from Bernstein Research says the wall will cost as much $25 billion. Fine, let's take the larger number. We are talking about a government project after all.

Where does one find $25 billion? To the average person that's some chunk of change. Especially when Mexico no tienen el dinero.

Take the money from the government feed trough, of course. But wait, I thought we wanted Mexico to pay for the wall? Why care if Mexico pays for the wall, as long as we don't? And we can even save some money in the process.

Make the wall pay for itself.

Anyone with half a brain in government should be able to come up with $25 billion. In the government scheme of things that's pocket change.

How much money does illegal immigration cost the U.S. each year? Those numbers are hard to find. FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform estimated the cost of illegal immigration in 2013 at $113 billion. $84 billion from state and local governments, $29 billion from the federal government. Tax receipts from those illegal immigrants were approximated at $13 billion. That's a net illegal immigration cost of $100 billion a year.

We've got some numbers to play with. Say the cost of the wall doubles to $50 billion. And let's even assume the costs of illegal immigration are over estimated. Cut that in half to $50 billion. $50 billion, or enough to build the wall. And that's just from one year of savings.

Now all we need to do is cut off the all assistance and benefits to those illegal immigrants. Nothing. Zip. Nada. If you're not here legally, you get no benefits. The $50 billion to 100 billion per year in savings would pay for the wall in no time. There would even be money left over. And with benefits cut off, there is no financial reason for those who received those benefits to stay. Or to come here in the first place. Some of them would probably leave. There would be less need for a wall if we take away the freebees as an incentive to come over, around or under the wall.

Cut off the benefits. Let the wall pay for itself.

Michael Banon is contributor to the Liberty Features Syndicate.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 892 words, total size 5 kb.