Now that a Republican is in office, liberals are pretending to care about fiscal responsibility.
Then-candidate Barack Obama famously stated that then-President George W. Bush adding $4 trillion to the national debt was “unpatriotic” – then proceeded to increase the national debt by $9 trillion. I guess that makes him slightly more than twice as unpatriotic?
$9 trillion in debt didn’t bother liberals, nor did Obama’s trillion-dollar stimulus package (that in reality was a sedative), or his multi-trillion dollar healthcare plan. So what is it that has Democrats pinching pennies all of a sudden?
Donald Trump’s proposed border wall, of course!
The estimated costs of a wall have ranged from anywhere between $10 billion and $25 billion dollars. The most recent Department of Homeland Security internal report put the estimated cost at $21.6 billion. Two points to be made here. First, $20 billion dollars is what Obama’s federal government spent every two days, on average. Second, illegal immigrants impose a cost on the American taxpayer, which the border would reduce.
Even if President Trump‘s border wall cost a high estimation of $16 billion, it would save that amount in just the first three years of operation by eliminating the lifetime cost to taxpayers for letting 170,000 slip in every year, according to a new analysis.
The authoritative Center for Immigration Studies Thursday crunched the numbers in a new analysis and found that even if the wall failed to stop the bulk of illegals, it would still pay for itself in a decade by cutting welfare, education, and other associated lifetime costs to federal, state and local taxpayers to care for undocumented immigrants.
Some additional interesting statistics from the study:
- 170,000 illegal crossings occur each year, according to the Institute for Defense Analyses.
- The taxes paid versus services used lifetime fiscal drain per illegal is $74,722, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
- Include descendants for illegals, and that cost jumps to $94,391.
- If one assumes a 45- or 50-year lifespan for illegal immigrants after they arrive and that the fiscal drain is evenly spread throughout their time in the United States, then the actual average fiscal costs are likely between $140,000 to $150,000.
- Much of the costs of illegal immigration are on the state and local level, not federal government. If the fiscal impact is just focused on the federal government, a payoff would take longer than three years.
In light of those statistics, the border wall isn’t a cost – it’s an investment!
What do you think? Will the border wall save tax money on welfare and other costs?
