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Wednesday, June 06, 2007
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Throwing Money Down a Rat Hole

For those of you who think that if only we had a wall on the southern border, all our immigration problems would go away, might I suggesting spending half an hour to watch this episode of Bullshit.  It is presented here broken into three parts.

How many billion dollars for a 5 minute speed bump?  Are you serious?  It is a waste of money purely to delude ourselves.  It is just to make ourselves feel like we're doing something.  But the reality is, it just won't work.  But hey... if you want to waste your money, then donate to the Minute Men.  Leave my tax dollars for something that might actually work.

# Posted at 8:04 PM by Nick  |  Comment Feed Link 10 Comments  |  No Trackbacks

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Thursday, June 07, 2007 12:36:40 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
I am willing to consider something other than a wall. What is there? Maybe you've comvered this before and I just missed it.
Thursday, June 07, 2007 12:52:42 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
Sorry to tell you but when it comes to immigration, your tax dollars are doing menos que nada.

Thursday, June 07, 2007 7:55:08 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
Do nothing, that's a nice solution.

Build it, patrol it, enforce it. Put some teeth in it.
Thursday, June 07, 2007 8:18:45 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
Yeah, I saw that episode on Showtime. It was an interesting episode, but I would hope that our geniuses in the Federal Government are planning to build something a bit more elaborate than what the "Home Depot" boys built. Otherwise, might as well just build a sieve.
GOPackers
Thursday, June 07, 2007 8:25:12 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
The folks that think that simply building a wall will stop the problem are the same folks who think the drug war can still be won. If the draw is powerful enough, then people will do whatever it takes to do it. American freedom, and the promise of a better life is a very powerful draw, and a wall won't keep people out. The wall won't work, and I'd frankly rather do absolutely nothing, rather then spending Billions (with a B) of dollars to get the exact same result.

As for what I'd do... I have covered it before. My opinions have morphed a bit over time as I've studied the issue. But in brief, I'd support ammending the constitution to remove the anchor baby loophole (where any child born in the U.S., even to parents who aren't citizens are still citizens), and removing the income tax and replacing it with a national sales tax. I know it seems totally unrelated, but one of the primary reasons why so many people are willing to hire illegals is because the tax code sets the barrier to entry to high to hire people legally. There is so much paperwork and hoops to jump through, that it becomes easier to hire someone under the table with cash, and illegals are perfectly willing to do that.

And yes, I also support a guest worker system, because whether you like it or not, people from Mexico are willing to do it for cheaper, and people in America are willing to pay them. The idea here isn't to stop them from coming over here. That's impossible. The idea is to limit their economic impact on government services, and have them be productive members of the economy.
Thursday, June 07, 2007 8:27:01 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
If you paid attention GOPackers, they built a replica of what the U.S. government has already built in San Diego several years ago.
Thursday, June 07, 2007 12:52:43 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
Gee, I was busy reading your highly informative blog which must have drawn my attention away from Penn & Teller. My apologies.

Since this is was a replica of what was already built several years ago, does this mean that they are planning to use the model for the new fence? That was my point, which you apparently missed.
GOPackers
Thursday, June 07, 2007 1:26:52 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
The drug war can't be won? Why doesn't anyone tell me these things? ;^)

Thanks, Nick. I'm not sure how much good that amendment would do, but it would be worth a try. Too bad it won't happen.

Any conservative worth his salt is in favor of a national sales tax to replace the tax code, but we know that won't happen either (Too bad no one asks for our opinion, eh?)

Like I said, I'm not that married to the border fence idea (just as I'm fairly against the "drug war" anymore. But I am concerned about terrorism and allowing criminals free reign to cross the border at will. Without enforcement, this bill is not going to work anyway, and I don't think it's going to be enforced.
Thursday, June 07, 2007 1:37:01 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
@GOPackers... the bill which authorizes the wall actually doesn't contain any specifications for the way it will be built. The one that Penn and Teller put together were modeled after the existing San Diego wall, and the specifications of the one being built by the Minutemen using their volunteer money. So there is no 100% way to model what will be built, but what they did was pretty reasonable I think given current information available.

@Dean... I wouldn't go so far as to say that any conservative worth their salt supports a national sales tax over the current tax code. There are many who would rather see a flat tax instead. Unfortunately, a flat tax wouldn't see the same benefits that I mentioned above as a national sales tax would.
Thursday, June 07, 2007 8:14:45 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
Of course. My bad. If it was just a flat tax, illegal immigrants migrants could still bypass the tax.
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