The current government shutdown is breaking all kinds of records. Aren’t we lucky to be living in such historical times?! The political squabbling is at an all-time high. While you probably know that the budget problems are all based on whether or not we should fund a border wall, you might not know some of the finer details. We’re going to dissect them together, right now.
$5.7 Billion
This is the number that is the central point of the entire battle. It’s what Trump has asked Congress to commit towards a border wall and increased security. It’s what the Democrats adamantly refuse to pay. Before we get into each side of the argument, we have to ask an important question. Why is $5.7 billion the magic number?
This number is derived from a proposal put together by border enforcement agencies. They analyzed weaknesses in the southern border, drafted a strategy to fix the problems and presented it. It is from that report that Trump drew $5.7 billion, and it is the basis of his stance.
According to the original proposal, this amount of money could pay to enhance physical obstructions on roughly 600 miles of the southern border. Additionally, it will fund expanding personnel and purchasing technology all aimed towards a holistic security improvement.
It’s worth noting that $800 million of this proposal is intended specifically to fund border facilities that process families and children. There has been plenty of criticism from both sides on the U.S.’s ability to process families and children trying to cross the border (whether legally or not), and this price tag is supposedly enough to resolve that particular issue. In all, this funding package could make a significant impact on the humanitarian crisis that both sides agree exist at the border.
The Democratic Stance
Enter the Democrats. They’ve made it clear that they won’t approve a single dollar of federal spending towards any kind of wall. It’s an extreme stance, and they’ve tried to justify it with all manner of craziness. They’ve said that walls are inherently immoral and racist. They’ve tried to convince us that walls don’t work. They tell us the money would be better spent on health care or a number of other projects. They’ve also tried to tell us that all immigration is good and never bad. It’s all a bunch of lies.
The first counterpoint is that $5.7 billion is a pretty small price tag for a single issue in Congress. You’ve probably seen that in years past, Democrats have approved substantially larger spending bills on the same topic. Saying that it’s too much money is a lie at best.
As for spending the money better, reducing illegal immigration by just five percent would save tens of billions of dollars in federal spending. We can’t promise that this package will achieve five percent, but that’s not exactly a lofty goal. This wall will literally pay for itself.
Then there’s the morality argument. They use it with guns too. They try to say that guns are inherently evil. As stupid as that statement is, it’s infinitely dumber to try and say that a border wall is evil. We already have quite a few border walls. Are they evil? This probably isn’t even worth addressing.
How about the effectiveness of walls? Border security officials have pointed out that every wall added to our southern border since 1990 has dramatically reduced illegal immigration and associated crimes (drug smuggling, human trafficking, etc.) If that’s not compelling enough, consider the basic logic of how walls work. Why do we drive on roads instead of through houses? This is actually the most idiotic part of the entire Democratic argument.
They tell us immigration is always good. This might be the craftiest deception to ever come from the left. All Americans agree that immigration can be a good thing. We also all agree that legal immigrants tend to be a very positive part of our population. They rarely commit crimes. They pay taxes, and they participate in our civic process in good ways.
None of those statistics apply to illegal immigration. Here’s the simple truth. Well over 90 percent of drug, weapon and human smuggling into our country is inseparably tied to illegal immigration. The wall won’t stop all of it, but reducing illegal immigration will absolutely reduce the crimes that come with it.
Why Fight?
Now that we’ve broken down the major arguments, we have to come to a conclusion. Why is there a fight in Washington over the budget? We’ve had shutdowns in the past, and they almost always boil down to a single issue. There’s no question that border-wall funding is that issue right now.
There are only two sides to this argument. One side recognizes the problem with illegal immigration across our southern border and the fact that it has harmed America for decades. They are proposing a legitimate, tangible solution to the issue. It’s not perfect, but no one actually expects that this $5.7 billion will completely fail to impact illegal immigration at all.
The other side of this argument recognizes a humanitarian crisis at our border. In fact, they were the first to call it as such. They are fully aware of every reason to reduce illegal immigration. In the face of all of it, they are denying a viable solution to prevent President Trump from scoring political points by achieving some version of a campaign promise. They don’t care who gets hurt in the process. All that matters is “winning” the political game.
That is who the Democrats are. They are openly endorsing illegal, inhumane acts across our border in order to thumb their noses at President Trump. They are denying pay to hundreds of thousands of government employees to be able to pat each other on the back for “sticking it to the man.” They are risking our entire country over funding they have all previously claimed to approve, simply because President Trump is the one doing the asking.
At the end of all of that, they blame the President for the whole thing. The President, whose only power in budgets is to veto (which he has yet to do), is the problem. I’ve had enough of these monsters.
