Posted on 05/21/2006 4:58:16 AM PDT by ovrtaxt
The federal government will have to reach deep into taxpayers' pockets if it goes ahead with plans to build a security wall along the U.S.-Mexican border – it could cost at least $3 million per mile.
That's $568.18 per foot.
President Bush this week sent Congress a $1.9 billion request to increase border security. But that money would go not only for new fencing, but also for 1,000 new Border Patrol agents, the temporary deployment of up to 6,000 National Guard troops, two new surveillance aircraft and five helicopters.
In December the House voted to build a security barrier – with a double set of steel walls, floodlights, surveillance cameras and motion detectors – along 700 miles of the 1,952-mile border.
The Senate this week voted to build 370 miles of barrier.
After the House vote, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., estimated that the 700-mile barrier would cost $2.2 billion, or about $3 million mile.
But that estimate could be way off the mark.
NewsMax looked toward Israel as an example and found that the 425-mile complex of fences, concrete walls, trenches and razor wire it is building along its border with the West Bank will cost $1.56 billion, or $3.67 million per mile – in an area where labor costs are far lower than in the United States.
The San Diego experience points to even higher costs.
A 14-mile, 15-foot-high double fence is now under construction near San Diego. Roughly $39 million has been spent on the project so far, and Homeland Security plans to spend $35 million more.
"If that $74 million is enough to finish the job [Border Patrol says the cost could keep rising] and the price is multiplied over the proposed 700 miles, the new fence could run $3.7 billion," the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
"Even that estimate doesn't take into account the expense of purchasing or condemning many miles of privately owned land abutting the border or of potential legal challenges."
At $3.7 billion, the 700-mile fence would cost $5.28 million per mile – or an astounding $1,000 per foot.
The fence near San Diego has slowed the flood of illegal aliens traveling through the border city of Imperial Beach, Calif., from about 2,000 a day to just a few a day on average.
That has driven aliens and drug smugglers to more remote and treacherous migration routes, and migrants increasingly hire smugglers to help them make the three-day hike through parched terrain – a tactic they could use to circumvent the new 700-mile fence.
So building the fence could turn out to be an expensive boondoggle, according to Mike Allen, director of the McAllen, Texas, Economic Development Corp.
"We want people to support our immigration laws because we live here," said Allen, whose home is half a mile from the border.
"But this will be a tremendous waste of money, and it will not stop immigration. People will just go around it."
The only solution that will work, according to a number of anti-immigration activist groups, is to build the fence along the entire 1,952-mile border.
Doesn't expect the LSM to report that though.
How many bullets can you buy for $3 million.
We really ought to declare that this is an invasion from Mexico sponsored by the government of Vicente Fox. We should give him 30 days to recall all his citizens. At the end of 29 days we should recall our ambassador and kick out the Mexican ambassador and then send the armor from Fort Bliss southward to annihilate the corrupt Mexican police, Mexican military, and Mexican politicians as that is the first step which must be taken to build the Mexican economy.
We should then round up all the illegal aliens and hold them in camps on Mexican soil until the end of the war ... which won't happen for about 100 years or so. (Right now we are still at war with North Korea as we only have a ceasefire and have been continually at war with Iraq since 1991 as we only have a ceasefire agreement with Saddam Hussein and have never made peace with either country.)
Gey over it people. There will be NO REAL WALL. It is a done deal. Unless everyone on here would like to throw everyone out of office? Then we can talk.
Lots of talk and no action...blah
I have just finished reading the act. Medicaid is administered by the states. All the Act says is that the states can put limitations on the the use of Medicaid. I don't think states like CA or AZ would ever try to exclude illegal immigrants from Medicaid.
When she got there, she was placed on a gurney and left to wait. Finally, she was able to ask an orderly why she wasn't being seen. He gestured to all those waiting, some with obvious injuries, heart attacks, etc, and said:"This is the way it is now."
I have been to the ER several times over the past few years in Northern VA. The orderly is right, that's the way it is. The ERs are filled with immigrants who get free medical care. The hospitals require US citizens to prove they have insurance and even ask for a credit card to charge $100 up front.
If the hospitals along the border are closing down, it is difficult to understand how people with minor problems can still use them as clinics.
LOL. I guess that also applies to US citizens who live on the border as well. The illegal immigrant problem is not confined to the border states. It is spreading throughout the country. The closure of ERs hurts Americans as well as illegal immigrants.
So. You LAME Senators need to drop-kick several of those silly freebie programs you have set up for the, "poverty-stricken ILLEGALS" and the other useless pet programs. For if you don't, there will be no people to support your sorry little selves, when it comes time for re-election. And the perpetual Swan Song of, "Oh, its just so expensive," doesn't hold water with anyone who actually thinks". Get rid of the useless things, and MAKE room for the useful. Does this eliminate the idea of new taxes. Oh my, it does....
Much as I appreciate the efforts of the Minutemen, I want to see a WALL. The triple-layer approach seems most secure to me.
Let's just take Alaska's money. They don't need it.
After working on the wall they need to be fingerprinted, photographed, eye scanned & DNA sampled for future crimes.
Many come in and out of the US many times, that makes them
multiple law breakers. We know they break many others as well and this would give a data base to prove they had done it before.
How much of the projected cost reflects the lining of someone's pockets?
BS- They will get "analysis paralysis" into the mix, and studies and bids will be reviewed until I am 100 y/o.
This wall could be built in no time with concrete tilt-up panels and there is alot of volunteer labor in the USA which will show up if you just tell them where.
Border Wall to Cost at Least $3 Million Per Mile
Where do I send my contribution check?
Here is how Medicaid is financed and works
The Medicaid program (Title XIX of the Social Security Act) is a state-administered health insurance program for low-income individuals that is jointly funded by the federal and state governments. The states operate indi-vidual Medicaid programs within broad guidelines established by the federalCenters for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Created in 1965 along with the Medicare program, Medicaid has grown from asmall entitlement program—serving only 4 million beneficiaries in 1966, at acost of $400 million—into a significant state and federal budget item. In 2002,Medicaid served 51 million individuals at a cost of $216 billion in combined state and federal spending, making the program larger than Medicare.
Accounting for over 40 percent of all federal funds flowing to the states, the program has become the largest single federal financing source for states. Medicaid expenditures consume an average of 16 percent of state budgets,second only to the proportion spent on elementary and secondary education.
The Medicaid program is funded by a combination of federal and state dollarsallocated through a statutorily required matching structure. Because Medicaidis an entitlement program, the federal government matches state spending onan open-ended basis, using a calculation called the federal medical assistancepercentage (FMAP). The FMAP is determined annually for each state, using a formula that compares the states’ average per capita income levels with thenational average income level. FMAPs range from 50 percent in the wealthierstates to 77 percent in the poorest state. (On average, the federal governmentcovers 57 percent of total Medicaid costs.)
This is a very liberal Democrat-run state. If it is happening here, it is going to happen elsewhere. I am sure that various groups will sue the states to allow free Medicaid to illegals, but I am not as certain they will succeed. If the hospitals are overrun or shut down or in triage mode, how can anyone get blood from a stone?
The Wisconsin state Senate is controlled by the Reps. Read the link I provided. There is a certain incentive for the states to continue assisting those who need the safety net. The federal government essentially pays matching funds. There is a reason why Medicaid is bigger than Medicare and has grown from 4 million to 51 million beneficiaries.
Look, I am just trying to interject a bit of reality here. I do not see the situation escalating to the point where every hospital is overrun by indigents of whatever citizenship. There are not infinite human or monetary resources. This is why the tax cuts and incremental privatizations were so important. Combined with medical procedures like triage, they are at least containing a portion of the problem.
The numbers are spreading. I have seen the change here in Northern VA. According to official census figures, the number of states that had Mexican-born residents as the largest group of foreign born residents in 1990 was 18. In 2000 it is 30 states. In VA our largest group is from El Salvador, but the number of Mexican born has increased dramatically. The problem is going to get worse before it gets better. The ACLU, La Raza, nd the Dems will continue to block any attempt to curtail medical services for illegals.
If it cost $10bil to build and $20bil/yr to man and operate, it would be cheap compared to the alternative.
The federal government will have to reach deep into taxpayers' pockets if it goes ahead with plans to build a security wall along the U.S.-Mexican border – it could cost at least $3 million per mile."
"About like your typical rural Interstate cost?"
Yup. NOT a big deal! We spent $280 billion on highways in the last highway bill, over 5 years.
that 'bridge to nowhere' cost $400 million and did little.
Spending $3 billion for about 1000 miles of border fence will pay for itself in a year or two in reduced costs in other areas.
I don't know if it's THAT good a deal. After all, we're talking about government contracts here. :)
It will be pretty handy, though!
Americans Lose $68 Billion to Illegals in 2002 or $136 billion with other factors
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