It looks like an initial 870 miles of fence to me, at a cost of around nine hundred million, that's 900 million dollars. Also $900,000,000. That's dollars not nickles.
Nope, hang the man for managing to get ANY further on a fence HE'S BEEN TRYING TO BUILD SINCE 2001, WITHOUT "CONSERVATIVE" SUPPORT.
"Nope, hang the man for managing to get ANY further on a fence"
His was a policy speech, not a budget request.
What he needed to say was a sea-to-sea fence, not a partial fence and not a "virtual" fence, and he needed not to say "guest worker" until the border is secure.
He knew this too.
But he chose, instead, to not give the Border Conservatives what they say they want.
He chose to try and split the baby, which looks like rope-a-dope.
It didn't work, and it's not going to work.
He's not going to get credit for asking for something that the target audience says it doesn't want, while refusing to give them what they said they wanted.
The President is not a stupid man, and he is well advised. His speech was calculated to SOUND LIKE he was giving people what they wanted, without, however, moving off his original position.
The BorderBots were not duped, and they are angrier than they were before that the President tried to dupe them.
What needs to happen now, to save the GOP's bacon, is that the Congressional reconciliation committee needs to ignore the President and agree in principle to a border to border fence, without amnesty now. They can offer to discuss it down the pike.
That will keep the BorderBots voting GOP this November.
If they get status quo, or guest worker, or no sea-to-sea fence, enough will stay home that we lose.
Why are we doing this?
Why don't we just cave and give this key element of the base what THEY say they want?
What is the PRINCIPLE that we are standing on here to leave the borders open?
Do we just have a political death wish?