Congress approves a colossal waste of money
September 30th, 2006 by Joe
There is just no end to the abuse to America’s pocketbook from this GOP Congress.
It has just approved one of the largest but most inane projects in human history: the construction of a 700-mile border fence along the Canada/US border, a fence as long as the distance from Washington to Jacksonville, FL. Preliminary estimates of the fence’s cost are $6 billion.
I don’t even know where to begin on what a stupid, idiotic election-season idea this is:
- Despite the length of the fence, it will still leave 1300 miles of border unfenced, or twice the distance from Washington to Jacksonville. It will be a short matter of time before anyone wanting to cross the border knows the locations of the fence pieces and acts accordingly.
- Wildlife do not have access to the same information about the fence’s location nor do they care about the US/Mexico border, so it threatens to seriously impede natural migration routes. Those routes are increasingly important on a planet suffering from global warming, which is forcing the northward migration of many species.
- The fence will be almost impossible to build, because it must go “over hill, over dale, through bush, through briar.” It is not flat land, and includes mountain peaks and desert valleys.
- The fence will be impossible to monitor along its entire length. Nothing will stop people from going to remote parts of the fence and simply blowing it up to allow passage.
You’d think the Republicans in Congress would have learned something from the Great Wall of China–pretty, but ultimately rather useless. But then again….that’s a decent description of this Congress too.
Sphere: Related ContentTags: border-fence, congress, illegal-immigration, Immigration
Posted in Current Events
Well, since they voted for the fence but failed to vote for funding, don’t look for construction equipment to start rolling any time soon. They just needed the votes so they can take them back to their home districts and use them in their re-election campaigns. I expect nothing more will come of it.
JOhn.
Wall or no wall, a large number of Mexicans will run for the border. Whether or not they cross …
Newspapers down here often run stories with quotes from migrants who previously went to the U.S. They all say the wall won’t discourage anyone from trying to go north. It could make the trip more difficult and dangerous - but they already know it’s not going to be easy.
In some towns I’ve visited, migration is a tradition. They’ve been doing it for generations. The money sent home by migrants allows families left behind to get by.
I don’t think the legislators actually want to *DO* anything about illegal immigration. They just want to be on record as *SAYING* they want to do something about illegal immigration. If they *REALLY* wanted to halt the migration, they’d go after the employers. No jobs, no reason to cross the border. The fact that the persecutions of employers who hire undocumented workers has dropped dramatically since Bush took office just shows how serious they are about this issue. No, this is nothing but campaign rhetoric.
Personally, I think that migrant labor is too important to the California economy, and needs to be recognized somehow. Unfortunately, I don’t have a solution.
JOhn.