by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Attention Walmart Shoppers: Mexico will not be paying for the Great Wall of Trump - you will!
Donald Trump has maintained all along that the construction costs of his self-aggrandizing wall project would be borne by Mexico, a claim that was quickly refuted and ridiculed by our neighbor to the south. And many even here in the United States questioned how Trump could effectively force a foreign nation to fund something that will essentially be an insult to their national character and pride. The answer, of course, is that he can't.
The Great Wall, once envisioned by many of Trump's loyal supporters as being thirty feet high and stretching along the entire United States border with Mexico, is now being discussed in much simpler terms - not as massive, and stretching along only a few hundred miles of the more turbulent border area. And much of the wall would actually be a fence.
But even with this dramatic demise, cost estimates still range upward of forty billion dollars, something the struggling economy of Mexico could not cough up even if it was of a mind to. That's forty billion of today's dollars - and God knows what the actual cost would be with overruns, payoffs, kickbacks, and who-knows-what by the time the damned thing actually gets built. (Remember Donald, building a wall will not be like building a hotel. When the government orders something built, contractors have to be paid - there will be no stiffing bill collectors, hiding from honestly-incurred debt, cheating employees, and seeking protection from creditors in bankruptcy court.)
Mexico is becoming pissed at Trump's ceaseless braggadocio. Yesterday President Pena Nieto cancelled a planned meeting with Trump to protest his continued plans to build a wall as well as his nonsensical threats to make Mexico pay for it. If Donald Trump wanted to alienate out neighbor to the south, and one of our most important trading partners, he has succeeded.
After Pena Nieto cancelled his trip to the United States, word began to leak out of the White House as to how Mexico would be made to "pay" for Trump's glorious edifice to himself. The idea being floated was that Trump was going to place a twenty-percent tax on all imports coming into the United States from Mexico. Yes, that move would hurt the Mexican economy because it would ultimately decrease their total exports to the United States. But - Mexico would not be paying those import duties. Those taxes would be paid by you, Walmart shoppers, on every Mexican tortilla, tomato, head of lettuce, avocado, strawberry, jumping bean, bottle of tequila, and big screen television that was manufactured south of the border down Mexico way.
Who will you have to thank for these higher prices? Donald John Trump, that's who!
And then, as in all good trade wars, Mexico will retaliate by slapping higher taxes on our exports - thus decreasing U.S. sales to their country and costing us jobs here at home.
Again, thank Trump as he stands atop his glorious wall and admires himself.
Citizen Journalist
Attention Walmart Shoppers: Mexico will not be paying for the Great Wall of Trump - you will!
Donald Trump has maintained all along that the construction costs of his self-aggrandizing wall project would be borne by Mexico, a claim that was quickly refuted and ridiculed by our neighbor to the south. And many even here in the United States questioned how Trump could effectively force a foreign nation to fund something that will essentially be an insult to their national character and pride. The answer, of course, is that he can't.
The Great Wall, once envisioned by many of Trump's loyal supporters as being thirty feet high and stretching along the entire United States border with Mexico, is now being discussed in much simpler terms - not as massive, and stretching along only a few hundred miles of the more turbulent border area. And much of the wall would actually be a fence.
But even with this dramatic demise, cost estimates still range upward of forty billion dollars, something the struggling economy of Mexico could not cough up even if it was of a mind to. That's forty billion of today's dollars - and God knows what the actual cost would be with overruns, payoffs, kickbacks, and who-knows-what by the time the damned thing actually gets built. (Remember Donald, building a wall will not be like building a hotel. When the government orders something built, contractors have to be paid - there will be no stiffing bill collectors, hiding from honestly-incurred debt, cheating employees, and seeking protection from creditors in bankruptcy court.)
Mexico is becoming pissed at Trump's ceaseless braggadocio. Yesterday President Pena Nieto cancelled a planned meeting with Trump to protest his continued plans to build a wall as well as his nonsensical threats to make Mexico pay for it. If Donald Trump wanted to alienate out neighbor to the south, and one of our most important trading partners, he has succeeded.
After Pena Nieto cancelled his trip to the United States, word began to leak out of the White House as to how Mexico would be made to "pay" for Trump's glorious edifice to himself. The idea being floated was that Trump was going to place a twenty-percent tax on all imports coming into the United States from Mexico. Yes, that move would hurt the Mexican economy because it would ultimately decrease their total exports to the United States. But - Mexico would not be paying those import duties. Those taxes would be paid by you, Walmart shoppers, on every Mexican tortilla, tomato, head of lettuce, avocado, strawberry, jumping bean, bottle of tequila, and big screen television that was manufactured south of the border down Mexico way.
Who will you have to thank for these higher prices? Donald John Trump, that's who!
And then, as in all good trade wars, Mexico will retaliate by slapping higher taxes on our exports - thus decreasing U.S. sales to their country and costing us jobs here at home.
Again, thank Trump as he stands atop his glorious wall and admires himself.
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