It’s not really a Texas blog, I just live here and the government is more insane than usual lately.
Governor “Hot Wheels” Abbott has decided to finish the Texas part of Trump’s border wall because of course he did.
Per the Houston Chronicle:
Abbott said he expected people to both donate their own money and volunteer their land for the barrier.
“My belief based upon conversations that I’ve already had is that the combination of state land as well as volunteer land will yield hundreds of miles to build a border wall in Texas,” he said.
The funds for Texas’ $250 million “down payment” will come from the state budget. Lawmakers will allocate money from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice into a disaster account, which will then be moved to the Texas Facilities Commission for the border wall construction. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, House Speaker Dade Phelan and the Legislature’s top budget writers Sen. Jane Nelson, R- Flower Mound, and Rep. Greg Bonnen, R- Friendswood, joined Abbott for his announcement Wednesday and signed a document allowing the transfer of the money.
He expects people to donate money and THEIR LAND to build this wall. And the $250 million dollar “down payment” sounds great considering each mile is expected to cost at least $25 million to erect. There are 1,254 miles of Texas-Mexico with 800 of those miles being the longest contiguous stretch (with no barriers). The cost to build a 1,254 miles wall would be $31,350,000,000 dollars. That’s thirty-one billion three hundred fifty million dollars. So, what does all that mean?
It means Abbott and his cronies care more about Trump’s failed ideas and policies than it does about Texans. We have a worthless power grid that killed 200 people and they’re asking us to put out thermostats on 82° in the summer, but let’s build a wall to keep families from other countries out. Most of the people coming across the border are families that pose no threat to Americans. Abbott’s latest solution is to move prisoners to other prisons in order to house refugees. Real prisons. Is there a problem? Yes. Is a wall the solution? No. We’ve seen how easily can scale the wall — and literally throw children over it. There isn’t enough security personnel and there aren’t easy answers about what to do policy-wise about the issue of amnesty. But what will $250 million dollars do? Virtually nothing to fight the actual issue.
kerryfaler.blog 