Well, it looks like the cost of Trump’s Wall between the U.S. and Mexico will be even greater than the previous $10 billion claim that the real estate mogul cited during campaign season. Trump recently ruffled taxpayer feathers by asking Congress to fund the Wall, and he continues to insist that Mexico will reimburse the United States. However, no one — including Trump — seems to know how this “repayment” will happen if Mexico refuses to play Trump’s game, which is what’s happening. The Associated Press now reveals word from Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, who plan to set aside billions more taxpayer dollars than previously anticipated:
Congress will move legislation this year providing up to $15 billion to build a wall along the Mexican boundary, Republican leaders said Thursday. But they would not say how they’d prevent the massive project from worsening federal deficits, and were meeting resistance from GOP lawmakers.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters at a GOP strategy retreat that they were planning legislation providing $12 billion to $15 billion for constructing the wall, one of President Donald Trump’s chief goals. Ryan said the goal is to complete that and other major bills in 2017, but the leaders offered no details on how the wall would be paid for, saying they would wait until the Trump administration proposes legislation.
Meanwhile, reports from the Trump press pool are indicating that Trump may intend to place a 20% tax on imports from Mexico to pay for the wall. If true, this seems to indicate that the U.S. consumer would bear the burden (and essentially pay for the wall more than once?). This doesn’t make sense, but Business Insider reveals that this border tax is indeed under consideration, and New York Times reported that Sean Spicer relayed word of this possible proposal to the pool.
Earlier on Thursday, Trump delivered a disjointed speech in Philadelphia after the city greeted him with wrathful protests. He took the stage as Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced that he will not attend next week’s planned meeting at the White House. Trump had threatened to cancel first, but Nieto beat him to the Twitter punch because he was fed up with Trump’s insistence that Mexico will pay for the Wall. And naturally, Trump reacted by claiming that they both agreed to cancel:
“The President of Mexico and myself have agreed to cancel our planned meeting scheduled for next week. Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States fairly, with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless. And I wanna go a different route. We have no choice.”
So, folks are free to interpret whether the cancellation was truly mutual, or Trump is simply shifting the narrative. Considering how he easily gets defensive things that make him look less than yuge, yes, it’s totally possible that he’s lying about this, too. Here’s a video clip of the relevant speech moment in Philly.
“The President of Mexico and myself have agreed to cancel our planned meeting scheduled for next week,” Trump says https://t.co/GmA5SQ9OIl
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 26, 2017
(Via MSNBC, CNN, Business Insider & Associated Press)