A little out of place so may not be accepted but here goes.... My own reasons for not reading some of your columns are 1. I've been reading you for decades and know what the substance is going to be--suffering, inhumanity, poverty, disease, all of which concern me greatly but are beyond my capacity to change; and 2. those things are depressing--I mean they weigh more heavily on me if I read about them. Same thing about trump, fox, and republicans today. I fear we are already in a dictatorship and that the 2020 election is already fixed. I admire you greatly. I don't say this lightly--you are a brave man. We give about $2,000 a year to charities and organizations (several recommended by you) in which all or almost all of the money, furniture, and clothing goes straight to people in need--starving, in need of medical care, homeless, refugee. You have impact on regular readers beyond their reading of specific articles because of what we know about you and your writing.
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Thanks for creating this interactive tool. It really brings home how absurd the spending on this wall is.
Coming to this late after reading today’s column by Kristof.
Obviously, our nation has a lot of unmet needs that our dysfunctional government can’t seem to prioritize and address sensibly.
The challenge is to concretely define important solutions that a consensus of voters are behind and then to elect enough representatives (and a President) who will implement them.
This column is a challenge to our defective electorate to wake up, look at what needs to be done and push for them to be implemented.
I am forwarding this column to folks who might use it (and hopefully pass it “forward” to others).
I am going to be frank about this wall. Wall construction is such an unimportant issue, Americans are wasting their time on. Build a wall, not build a wall, is not going to make any difference. It's just a psychological issue. I don't know whether President Trump is smart enough to understand this. Republicans at least know very well that, no matter they build a wall or not, illegal immigrants are going to cross. If President Trump wants to spend 5 Billlion USD, let him. It is just to project himself as a savior of America's interests, without actual ground truth. President Trump has wasted so many billions and it's just one more feather in his cap. We have other important issues, like streamlining the policies of immigrants, who legally enter America, and reach a consensus on DACA. Detaining Children, labeling them as America's enemies, is really a shameful thing. At least in America, I hope such things do not happen. In America's prosperity, there is huge contribution being done by highly skilled immigrants, who have come to America, believing in the American Dream. America itself is a country formed by immigrants. America is the most powerful nation in the world, because it is technologically advanced, with contribution by intellectuals from other countries, who has settled in America. They identify themselves as Americans. Hopefully America's right understands that and not make an issue of it. Shutting down the Government for the wall issue, seriously is not worth it.
Thoughtful and intelligent.
Kind of like the president. RIght?
First, half a billion to fund the IRS to repatriate the trillions of dollars in lost revenues and taxes that are offshored by the Uber wealthy,
Second, health care for EVERY American, get rid of the middlemen drug negotiators and insurance ripoffs,
Third, education for free up through and including the first two years of college, if the kid doesn’t get good grades the first two years, he/she isn’t serious about it anyway,
Fourth, get rid of the scourge of opioids on the market. Those nefarious legal drugs are making billions for money grubbing pharmaceuticals that are peddling dangerous chemicals. We only need the pharma corporations to provide useful meds,
Fifth, fix our infrastructure! Take a trillion from the military budget and fix our crumbling roads and bridges,
Sixth, get our environment cleaned up, put solar panels on every house and building in this country. Every single one.
Kristof for president!
Spend those billions on Central America. Alleviate condiotions and decrease illegal immigration. While you're at it, deepen ties with Latin America. Do a Marshall Plan for the region and work towards a free trade zone, modelled on the EU. This would bring prosperity to the region and overwhelmingly benefit American business. Take care of your backyard or China and Russia will.
@Jorge Larangeira: "Do a Marshall Plan for the region and work towards a free trade zone, modelled on the EU. "
The EU has France, Germany, Sweden.
This would-be EU will have what, Honduras and Guatemala ?
"Take care of your backyard or China and Russia will."
It's not our backyard. Progressives have been saying so for years.
Could we please spend some of this wall money to reunite the separated children at the border with their families?
Nicholas, your ideas make too much sense....We all know trump does not read and has the attention span of a flea...He concentrates of Fox Noise and hate talk AM radio...Garbage in garbage out....He is incapable of solving almost any problems....He does not have the tools for critical thinking....Look as ALL his failed business ventures...He does not deserve to spend Billions of tax payer dollars as he has very poor judgement. Thank God for Pelosi and the democrats.
Well, if we're going to play this game, how would you spend the hundreds of billions, local, state, and federal, wasted annually on welfare and freebees of all sorts for layabouts? I'd devote the first 10B per year of savings to providing them with one-way plane tickets somewhere else. We could even be big-hearted and give each one a $5000 'leaving bonus' to get started elsewhere. So, with that + $1000 plane ticket + $4000 each in capturing and government administrative costs, that would be $10,000 each. We'd get rid of a million socio-economic parasites a year! In 20 years we'd be rid of the most useless 20 million people. You can also guess what other social and political problems that would solve, too. (I'll be politically correct and leave that to you're imagination.) It would also be a self-liquidating program, which most government programs aren't, because within 20 years they'd be gone, permanently--Yippee!
"So I challenge you. How would you spend the $5.7 billion to make America better off? "
How about spending some of that money in bringing a lawsuit against the racially segregated NYC Public School system?
Some years ago the NAACP brought suite against the Detroit Public School System which was at the time was about 35% white.
With all the liberals and progressives in NYC this should be a no-brainer.
You could spend that money not only on legal fees but also in implementing the "busing" plan. Will it be tough? Sure. Will it be expensive? Sure. But for all the words that are written in he NYT OP-ED pages folks should be screaming for this remedy. You know: "No price too great to pay..." and all that.
In fact, why isn't this being done now? Please, do tell.
We - as a nation - have been throwing money at problems since LBJ with little to show for it. I for one would like to see “zero” illegal immigration and rather legal immigration based primarily on the skill set the immigrant has to offer us and what our needs are. Software engineer that speaks English with no health issues and skeletons in the closet - top of the list. Another non-English speaking laborer with ties to gangs and TB - reapply in 15 years but for now we have no room. You want to serve in our military for 5 years and wait another 10 for citizenship after you get out for you and your spouse (not children) - probably. In the mean time build the wall, and put the national guard at the border with instructions to “shoot to kill” anyone entering illegally.
I'd spend it all on myself. Yachts, helicopters, 9 figure Manhattan and London apartments, chalet in Telluride. Maybe a Caribbean island, a couple senators, a football team. Squads of lawyers and accountants to protect my fortune. Servants. Lots of servants.
And walls around my properties.
How aout a few bucks for the environment?
Makes much more sense than building a Wall that Mexico is supposed to pay for.
How about spending whatever it takes to reunite separated children and families?
Education, of all kinds, and the great people who educate. Free pre school and daycare with excellent teachers. Literacy. In prison education. Vocational education.
Mr. Kristof, are you for open borders. If you are then you should come out and say so. In this way we can join the issue. According to Gallop there are forty million Latinos planning to come to this country in the next few years. Is that something you want? Is that something we an handle? Safety net wise, job wise etc. These are important questions.
Let's spend a couple of million on a virtual wall, sea to shining sea, so when our president "dons" his presidential virtual reality goggles he can motor along it, mile after mile. Then of course spend the rest as Mr. Kristof, or any of the other sane posters here suggest;)
This is not Trump's wall money to spend. The money belongs to the U.S. taxpayers, long forgotten in this melodrama. Having said that, if he again shuts down the government, or creates an artificial government emergency, the Republicans will have no chance to keep the Presidency and Senate, nor take back the House in 2020. Democrats have all the leverage in this situation, and should absolutely force Republican capitulation on the wall, for once and for all.
Thank you for this!! Should be an exercise all Americans have to do. $5.7 billion for a object in the middle of nowhere. ugh. Let's invest that money into infrastructure that actually impacts American lives.
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"$5.7 billion for a object in the middle of nowhere. ugh"
Keep that in mind next time we dump foreign aid to a Latin American country.
It bothers me that people who should know better keep talking about the "$5.7 billion for the wall." In addition to hoodwinking Americans about the purpose of the wall, its likely effectiveness and identifying the source of funding for it, Trump and the Republicans have already succeeded in fooling us about the cost. The wall will not cost $5.7 billion. It won't cost twice that, or three or four times that. The $5.7 billion is for one itty bitty stretch of the wall.
The total cost of the whole wall is unknown, but estimates range from $25 billion to over $100 billion, and that's not even including long-term maintenance. Focus on that folks.
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I'd spend oodles of cash on Head Start and after-school programs. These kids are our country's future; why would we not want to give them the very best opportunities to succeed?
I’d be willing to bet serious money that before very long protesters from both sides of the border will begin making efforts to stop all new construction of the Wall and dig tunnels under parts of it that have already been constructed.
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All of these programs could be financed at less than 50% of the total cost of Trump's dream wall.
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Excellent article. Society needs preventive medicine, not belated half measures and Draconian punishments. As the Brits say, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
The U.S. needs to become less extreme and more Socialist. Socialism serves the greater good and has nothing to do with Venezuela, Zimbabwe or any other failed nation that Extreme Capitalists love to associate with 'socialism'. It is really time for the nation to change course, before it becomes an Orwellian fortress for the rich, with double the poverty, double the drugs and double the incarcerations that are currently crippling the society and the economy.
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Mr. Christof, unfortunately, you don't get to spend that "trump's wall money" because in the first place it is not his. In the second place that money, all $5.6 billions or more, is money that Mexico is going to pay so you don't get to decide where it goes unless you first work with Mexico.
A fantastic piece.
While it would be belated, the nation would benefit from a similar look at the “opportunity cost” of our undeclared wars. A quick Google search showed that we have spent 2.4 TRILLION dollars on the Iraq and Afgan wars.
These moronic efforts did nothing to make America safe. Meanwhile, they spread destruction to millions of innocents, thereby fueling justifiable hatred for us. Making us less safe.
There is also a chance that the accumulated debt from these follies will destabilize the US.
It is painful to think how much domestic good could have been done with these dollars.
Finally, it is amazing that the “authors” of these crimes have not been held accountable.
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This is compelling in its simplicity. I've been waiting for somebody to put the $5.7 in terms that everyone can understand. It's not about what we're getting...it's about what we're giving up. A monument to stupidity and egomania. One man's life and lies vs. thousands...potentially millions..of others. Yes, this makes me angry. But more importantly, it makes me mad. And Mad Women VOTE.
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Brilliant.
Conspicuously absent from your list is recruitment of potential politicians who are educated in governance, have actual experience, and can pass background checks (both criminal and mental). Given that corrupt, uneducated, and sociopathic politicians are the root of all waste & corruption, better oversight of a mere 525 people should yield an extraordinary payback.
Candidates, including child molestors and those who fleece non profit organizations that allege to help kids with cancer, need not apply.
I would definitely spend the money in K-12 education.
Education is the answer to many of our sins. History taught in school should inform our children that black face is improper and harmful . Sex education should educate our sons and daughters that no one should touch their private parts including their father ,brother ,priest , uncle or doctor.
Unfortunately many of our educational institutions fail to properly cover history , civics and sex education . The Con Man in Chief would not have even been elected by the electoral college had our schools taught civics and sex education . We all know Donald's school curriculum failed to cover sex education or civics.
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Invest in businesses in communities from where most illegal immigrants come. Security, education, small businesses.
Too rational and helpful...not enough hate and racist for the Trump crowd.
Wow, all this talk of money we do not have, and money we will borrow from China. Next article: how you would spend the money you stole from a bank. I breathlessly await your elucidation of choices.
This is not Trump's wall money, to spend. The money belongs to the U.S. taxpayers, long forgotten in this melodrama. having said that, if he again suts down the government, or creates an artificial government emergency, the Republicans will have no chance to keep the Presidency and Senate, nor take back the House in 2020. Democrats have all the leverage with this canard.
I want to live in the country that has these priorities.
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CA thinks spending $77 billion (including federal subsidies) on a single bullet train line (that speed wise is now to be more of a bus train than a bullet anything) is sensible. Seems to me $5.7 million to help close off obvious areas of non-fenced access is a drop in the bucket. Just this week the Border Patrol caught hundreds, including unaccompanied children, crossing at such an area.
Education, health and infrastructure
This is great but a typically Timesian reaction and doesn’t resolve our porous borders. How about “what will it cost to secure our borders, and enforce legal entry into the United States, whether it’s wall, fence, guards, drones, (etc.)” The Mexico/US border IS a problem, and rather than throwing money at non-related issues, we could address illegal migration from Mexico, as well as shore up some of the differences between the parties with policy both the Dems and the GOP can agree upon.
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Since the actual issue is immigration policy, the money should go to implementing all businesses, corporate to Mom & Pop, and all organizations with E-verify (or some equivalent). This would be done to maintain accountability of the people, who have employment or residency visas (~50% of current illegal residents were initially in the country legally), or have no visa but here illegally (mostly) to find employment, and place standards on businesses/organizations to meet these requirements. Stringent fines or incarceration (for multiple offenses) would be consequence for non-conformance. Reform immigration policy to allow faster processing of legitimate (not manufactured) asylum requests, and getting non-residents work visas (guest worker programs) for industry and businesses that separately need workers.
I'd propose spending millions on web sites that would provide info. to people who want to protect themselves from con men; specifically, a person who has spewed 8,000 lies in the past 26 months and wants to be a dictator.
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Investing in education for American kids is quaint foolishness. The logic of globalism says we play with phones and bring in staff from India and China.
I would divide that 5.7 billion into three areas: improved public education, expanding Medicare, and investigating and prosecuting hate crimes.
Republicans have deliberately starved public schools with these two goals in mind: ensuring an ignorant populace will help them retain political power and diverting funds to charter schools is nothing more than back-door segregation. Our tax dollars need to stop going to what are essentially white, private schools and need to return to the public school system.
The second area? Greatly expanding Medicare, immediately creating a buy-in program for those aged 55 to 65 and then expanding it each decade. It is a disgrace that our nation believes that healthcare is a privilege that only the wealthy deserve to have.
Finally, hate crimes have skyrocketed under Trump. Both the Anti-Defamation League's and the Southern Poverty Law Center's data are frightening -- showing an exponential increase in hate crimes since Trump has taken office. Providing serious funding for hate crime investigation and prosecution should be one of our priorities. As a person of color, I can tell you that I've received many more slurs and ugly comments these past two years than I had received in the decades before. Many of my friends who are ethnic minorities will not let their teenagers outside without adult accompaniment now. We know we are less safe than we were just two short years ago. This is the new America under Trump, at least for some of us.
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It is not "Trump's Wall Money," it is our money.
Here is a report which should interest both the writer and readers.
"Based on the education level of illegal immigrants, the NAS figures project that the net fiscal cost (benefits minus taxes) for 10 million adult illegal immigrants after receiving amnesty would have a net present value of negative $1.29 trillion."
September 2016, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report, The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration. https://www.nap.edu/download/5516
Now lets see what the writer and reader would do with 1.3 trillion vs 5 billion?
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Excellent allocation of resources Trump was planning to 'burn' in his demagogic drive, 'a wall supposed to be paid by Mejico' (so to appease his credulous 'base'). Now, if you could multiply this by 10 or 100, a no doubt willing contribution from our billionaires, we would be way ahead in combating poverty and violence...by cutting down the odious economic and social inequality we are so richly endowed with.
I am typing this as I am holding my sick daughter in my arms. She has the flu. We have all gotten the flu vaccine this year. But, because of a lack of investment in vaccine technologies, the flu vaccines is not as effective as it should or could be. Flu kills up to 80,000 Americans every single year. So, here's my demand: take that $5.7 billion dollars and give us new effective vaccines! Universal flu vaccines! Rhinovirus vaccines,! Norovirus vaccines! RSV Vaccines!
Republicans are willing to fund the wall is because it will not help anyone.
They are diametrically opposed to helping anyone.
That is the reasoning behind all their initiatives.
Still, if I had my say:
We need the money to make our prison population 2/3 smaller within 40 years.
Making education better is critical, but so is exposing the consequences of failed education.
If we hide those we fail in prisons, Americans will never understand what their selfish policies have done.
We have far, far, too many people in prison, and need to fix our decrepit systems of criminal justice, until we are an enlightened country.
Because enlightened countries do not have our courts, sentencing, or cruel and hopeless prisons.
Forget the pathetic little baby First Step Act and absolutely renovate the way we think about what should happen when criminals are incarcerated, if they need to be locked up at all. Make prisons places of rehabilitation, safe and healthy places, where inmates learn trades, crafts, arts, sciences, are educated, and come out better.
Only commit the mentally ill in health facilities.
I too want, the international funding in the article. Why should we only be talking about 5.7 billion?
It's our money too.
45th should pay for His Wall by liquidating Trump Organization.
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Every single choice is money better spent than for the wall.
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Ah, Nicholas, how optimistically ingenuous of you.
Spend money on investments with a return, on people who our Calvinist/Social Darwinist mores scream don't deserve it? Who do you think we are, anyway--Northern Europeans? We're Americans, by God, and nobody's entitled to eat anything they didn't kill.
(After all, we've got plenty of guns so people can go out and kill. And you want to have them bought back. Sheesh.)
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How about working on desegregating NYC's racially segregated public school system. Are Calvinists causing that?
I love it.
$438 million for IUD's for poor single mothers on welfare.
Nice touch Nicholas.
Nice touch indeed.
Margaret Sanger would be proud.
This is just so great. I have a few other ideas, but yours will be more than sufficient.
I tried to go through the list but I wanted to give money to most of the causes I saw and quickly ran through my $5.7 billion. We should be supporting all of these initiatives to make America a better place rather than just one with more militarized borders exercising inhuman policies such as family separation and wall-building.
I've been thinking about the mass exodus from South America. What caused it? What will 'solve' it so that people can live in their homeland in safety, make a living and raise families in safety. There has been a massive rise in the tide of migration due to countries being destabilized both politically and economically.
The reality is that gang violence is fueled a lot with drugs. What no one is talking about is the 'profit' motive and network that consists not just of rouge 'gangs' in South America but must also require US citizens that are participating in this process and selling it on the streets here to the detriment of our citizens and the citizens of South America. In the NY Times I read about the Army Special Ops guy with 90 lbs of cocaine from Columbia. DEA thinks he is part of a larger network (of COURSE he is!) As long as there is a market in the US there is incentive to run drugs from Mexico and South American countries to the US.
I'd suggest that some of the $5.7 billion would best be used on more careful searches (with video cameras so that the searches can't become dealers either) of planes and personnel that are actively interfacing with drug cartels to do 'drug enforcement.' They should be 'beyond reproach.' Search them. Put more funding behind identifying those who are leaders in drug cartels with 'business' coming into the US.
Ask the people of South America what they think is the solutions to help their country re-establish stability.
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Take the money and use it to start what we lack but other democracies have--more public funding of elections. From that wiill flow many future benefits to our democracy, rebalancing our politics, allowing average citizens to regain some influence on lawmakers and policy.
Princeton's Gilens and Page showed with congressional records that rich donors have great influence on policy, while the citizen majority have little. We get little representatio for our taxation.
Set a limit in advance for basic campaign costs to reduce our huge campaign outlays. Strictly limit private donations. Reject equating unlimited private donations with 'free speech' protected by the 1st Amendment of our venerable Constitution. That's how the US Supreme Court made the supreme error of legalizing political corruption. Our court used the constituion to distort our politics, as the 1 percent made politicians dependent on their money.
Save huge sums by banning paid political ads that swamp our media at high rates. That makes US elections the world's most expensive -- like our health care.
Many countries ban paid ads on media yet still inform voters before elections. The money saved can fund health care, education, and green energy, as other countries do. And let voters to be free from constant manipulation and propaganda.
And the rich can still be rich. But not so excessively that they exert deplorable political influence in a democratic society.
I would put it toward a back-up system for water in the Southwest.
Why? Of all the states, California provides the largest percentage of total GDP for the United States: over 14%.
The states that rely on water from the Colorado River (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) provide nearly 20% of GDP for the nation.
This region is on the brink of running out of water. We absolutely need water system redundancy to keep the nation from the severe economic disruption that would be caused if the Southwest went dry.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/the-wests-great-river-hits-its-limits-will-the-colorado-run-dry
“The West’s Great River Hits Its Limits: Will The Colorado Run Dry?” by Jim Robbins & Ted Wood
Since the wall is being sold as a "national security" measure, I would expand the definition of "security" to include financial security and a basic, decent standard of living for all. My biggest project would be guaranteeing every high school graduate a job or paid apprenticeship for two years starting the day they graduate or two years of free post-secondary education with a living allowance, their choice. The guarantee would be only for those graduates who are drug- and alcohol-free, with clean criminal records. It would motivate children from an early age to learn and graduate and resist peer pressure to use drugs and get involved in criminal activities. It would leave them no time after graduation to be idle and drift with no direction, making them susceptible to bad influences and hopelessness. Every young person in America should know that they have a place and a bright future if they make the effort and play by the rules.
The issue on the table is how to improve border control.
The issue is not how to spend $5billion on a host of other things instead of spending it on border control.
If those other things need money to be spent on them, then that money needs to be appropriated in addition to -- not instead of -- $5billion for border control.
Thank you, Mr. Kristof, for giving some of us a dream to make into a goal.
According to the CBO Trumps gov't shut down cost over $10 billion, enough to build two walls.
I would use the money to help refugees find safe housing and employment opportunities in America.
The single biggest driver of climate change, mass migration (not just to the US but throughout the world) and environmental degradation is overpopulation. So I would spend all the money on family planning throughout the world. Women who have control over the number of children they have, have been proven to be greater contributors to society. Enabling half the population to choose when and how many kids they have would greatly contribute to the health of the planet, so my vote would be to spend it all on family planning.
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This is my favourite article of the year!!!! Trump and many senior lawmakers through around numbers with total abandon. Carelessly. Thank you for making us understand how much can be done with the money government gets to spend. The budget of each department should be made public in a manner which is easy to understand by all Americans. If governments ran their budgets as well as most people do - world would be a better place!
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I would choose any of these over a border wall, but I was disappointed that none of the choices were intended to help us mitigate or adapt to climate change. I think climate change is the greatest threat we face and increases so many other problems like people fleeing drought and hunger in Central America. There are so many possible choices - clean cook stoves, regenerative agriculture, restoring mangroves, improving energy efficiency in low income housing, etc.
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In all the discussion about the costs of President Trump's wall, II've yet to read of the costs required to maintain the wall after it is built. The wall will be 1900 miles long, and as every home owner learns, the wall will require sustained maintenance. Moreover the wall be an extended target of opportunity, inviting sabotage along its entire length. Trump's long anticipated combat at the border between America and Mexico will have finally arrived -another strategic choice with unanticipated consequences lurking in the weeds.
I would spend all of the $5.7 billion to establish a guest worker program where anyone who can pass a background check and can get a job can stay and work in the U.S. without fear and in pursuit of happiness. I would redeploy ICE budget dollars to keep this program going and monitored.
I think the dems should pass next week that funds the wall using voluntary contributions on our tax forms. We already have several of these options. They don't reduce your tax liability. Certainly if >100 million people want a wall then all they have to do is contribute $57 each. Simple enough. The Koch brothers could contribute a billion to start things off. Maybe Mr. Adelson could do the same- certainly if he believes in Trump then he should put his $ where his mouth is. Alternatively, just cut $5.7B from the defense budget.
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Hey,
why stop with funding only the wall with voluntary contributions?
Let's use voluntary contributions for all government spending, from schools to roads to parks to national defense.
I would spend it all on democracy issues. Every last penny. No matter what your issue - gun control, education, environmental degradation, health access, etc. - I think what is broken and preventing progress on all these is that our government/policy decision making is co-opted by the few - we are a plutocracy and powerful interests have structured it this way for a long time. Fix the root cause by growing the electorate, fundamentally giving everyone in the country a real voice, and lots of these problems finally get dealt with.
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How about using some of the cash to revamp the tax code to support national health care. Then use some to overhaul US public education to improve the quality of teachers, decrease class size, and create curricula that can meet the needs of every student. Then spend whatever it takes to do away with Citizens United, the electoral college, and the ability that the wealthy have to buy politicians who promote their agendas.
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The country has indulged itself in parks in the past. FDR did with the WPA and the CCC. We enjoy those parks today. DDE had a program called Mission 66. The government put money and effort into parks from 1956 to 1966. Lots of rehab work was done. In that vein we could create a new state park in every state.
Treat us to something uplifting and nice for a change.
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Thanks for pointing out the scale of what $5.7 billion could responsibly provide. Curious as to why Climate Change mitigation and adaptation is not on your list? You could do much good in describing and quantifying this approaching challenge.
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I would spend a chunk of it on providing access to broadband hi-speed internet for those parts of our nation that lack it. Many of those areas are "Trump country" and deprived of this technology suffer economically and educationally. Federal led expansion of high speed internet has been precedented by the Rural Electrification Agency that brought electric power to rural areas. Other better uses for the wall money are improving salaries for teachers and battling climate change.
A fantasy: take a Boeing 747, and take strafe poor areas of the nation with dollar bills floating from the sky, give $1,000 tips to waitstaff and housekeeping at hotels, pay for millions of indigent patients to receive the finest care at concierge medical offices, pay the college educations of those who cannot afford one, and create a free, 24/7 buffet in each city of the country staffed by 5-star chefs with the finest and freshest food with beautiful decor and table-clothed tables and formally dressed waitstaff.
On the basis of the $5.7B being for protecting us from those ravening hordes of immigrants, I focused on things that would either prevent people from having to flee their homes (like the anti-gang programs), speed up processing the ones who want to be here legally (more judges! and advocates! and lawyers for people like young children, who are expected to present their case in a foreign language, often before they are old enough to attend school), and reduce demand for drugs here in the US (for people who think the free market will solve all ills, Republicans don't seem to understand the law of supply and demand too well). But I must also add my voice to the chorus of people wanting action on climate change, which according to our Defense Department, is a threat to us, because people in other countries faced with drought or floods or whatever climate things make it impossible for them to grow crops and survive in their homelands have to move elsewhere, into places that already have people, causing resistance from them and stoking the sorts of fears that promote terrorism. We could solve so many problems if we could just focus on a few underlying issues - too bad they are ones that Republicans in general, and Trump in particular, are refusing to see.
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I would invest 100% in fighting climate change. It is a real national emergency.
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Solve the problem. 1) Create a national ID card system for citizens and legal residents, and require all others to carry their passports with a valid visa. Failure to have a passport with a valid visa means deportation with no chance of returning for 10 years. 2) End birth tourism by requiring certificates from doctors that people entering the country for longer than 4 weeks are not pregnant. 3) eVerify for all businesses greater than 5 employees. 4) Reserve public services such as school, food assistance, etc. for those with national IDs. 5) Pass a law making Mexico a "safe' country for asylum, to prevent asylum forum shopping from those coming from the south.
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Nick -- here's the way it goes. If you are for open borders...that's your choice. But if you don't believe in open borders, then you have to secure the borders. We know that there is great variation in how many illegals are apprehended crossing the border -- low of under 300k, high of 1.5 million. Now, those are apprehensions. So what's an acceptable number? Let's say the acceptable number is 50k just for argument's sake. Then how do you make the border secure enough that the number of crossings declines to an acceptable rate? Don't you think walls are part of the equation? Walls have the advantage of being low maintenance -- a one time expense.
So -- why don't you look at it that way instead of thinking that like magic, the problem disappears if we ignore it.
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One more thing to think about - if you choose all of the wonderful listed suggestions (other than the wall, of course), it comes to $14.6 billion, way less than the $20-25 billion estimated to build the whole stupid wall.
New activist representatives, listen up! Try to sell these issues and these programs as a contrast to the way we spend money now (walls and weapons); it may be a good way to sell moderate voters on more radical changes.
1
Mr. Kristof, you propose many great ideas for how to use this money; the real problem is that there is simply not enough money available.
Democrats should propose $57 billion to be allocated among these ideas. Or even $570 billion. (Where would that amount come from? Cancel the tax cuts for the wealthy!) But don't waste even a penny for this worthless additional physical wall.
Trump won't accept this money. He won't because he doesn't actually care about border security. If he did, he would be taking columns like this one to heart. (Of course, he would have to read them first, too!)
This is the best $5.7 billion that has ever (not) existed. Democrats need to continue to use it to drive Trump crazy. Even crazier than he already is.
But most importantly, Democrats need to use it to expose Trump for the absolute fraud that he really is. A liar who cares only about his own interests, only about getting a "win" for himself. He cares nothing about the American people, or the rest of the world.
Democrats: stay strong. Offer Trump a huge sum, allocated among the ideas presented here. But no wall. Never a wall. He won't take the offer. And everyone will see him for what he really is. Don't be afraid, Democrats. Just try it ... for the benefit of everyone.
2
Dear Mr. Kristof,
It's not Trump's money. For that matter, it's not Congress' money. It's taxpayer money - at least the part that actually gets collected. The rest is borrowed, yet that doesn't seem to bother you. Instead of your wish list of things you'd like to buy (I'm sorry, the PC term is always "invest"), why don't you come up with a list of things we no longer need to spend on. I bet you could go through every cabinet department and find something that is an absolute waste of taxpayer dollars. Neither political party has the spine to do this for real, and apparently neither do pundits. They all have no problem spending other peoples' money.
2
I'd spend it all on:
investing in basic science,
investing in renewable energy and renewable energy research,
investing in environmental protections.
Climate change is a true national emergency. I'm sure we could make a huge dent with 5.7b spent there--as opposed to just flushing it on a wall.
51
Here!, Here!
ch6
I agree with all of the suggestions you make. And of course infrastructure, an essential. How about high speed trains, very improved mass transit, etc. And with what is left over form a committee to legally impeach the president. Thanks
Climate change is not an American national emergency. Climate change is a global emergency.
Infrastructure, Infrastructure, and Infrastructure. All the things like power, roads, trains, bridges are incredibly beyond their original life expectancy. We are holding together these things with ducktape and patching over holes. Spend it all on bringing the US from Post WWII era infrastructure and that will help all of the US move forward.
23
If Mr. Trump sincerely wishes to find a cure for "child cancer," he could choose to fund the research with the $5.5 billion he is demanding for the border wall. This amount - more than ten times the token $500 million he proposed for a cancer cure - would actually make some progress.
21
When a few weeks ago Trump said "It's just a few billion dollars. Not much," all I could think of was Everett Dirkson's comment many years ago - "A few billion here, a few billion there. Pretty soon, you're talking REAL money."
In fact, it's OUR money - the taxes we pay, and demeaning the amount, as Trump does, demeans those of us who actually pay our taxes.
30
I'd hire a few hundred illegal immigrants and open up a nice restaurant in MidTown..making sure the employees were kept off the books. If ICE showed up, I would point them towards Mayor DeBlasio who has pledged to not allow anyone to ask anything about anybody. then I'd open another restaurant in Jackson Heights...one in Wall Street,...one in Hell's Kitchen..one on the Upper West side...maybe one by LaGuardia and certainly a couple in the Hamptons.
I'd put every legit restaurant owner out of business and not pay a dime in Social Security taxes.
By the time anyone caught up to me,...I'd be in the Caymans living off of 10% interest.
Ooops.....sorry...that's what NY restaurant owners already do today.
My bad.
1
If Trump is so rich and this wall is so important to him, let him spend his own dime for it. And how about him spending his own dime flying back and forth from Palm Beach instead of mine.
1
Veddy interlesting. I would begin by spending two Billion to develop an aerosol birth control bomb-- that detonated anywhere would result in no babies for five years. So many problems on the planet most of all perhaps global warming are the result of unfettered population growth.
To encourage people to stay at home and not think that getting to the USA will solve all their problems, I would build or aid in building Habitat for you name the country -- Guatemala, Honduras etc... new towns in the countryside beyond the cities so people who want to live in peace can live in peace. There are many methods of eco-friendly building (most likely wood -- not concrete block. It was done in the 18th C -- have all those basic skills.
been lost everywhere? Maybe spend money revitalizing some of the towns losing population in the Midwest... altho I must say the weather in the East sure beats that in the Midwest!
I would put the entire elementary/high school curriculum in all of its peregrinations and in multiple language online. (Satellites I would guess will eventually transmit data).. I also believe in an online college, engineering school, law school, business school, even medical school. The biggest MOOC ever!!!
I would dedicate resources to creating secure autonomous vehicles.
I would encourage urban density not suburbification.
Does it make a difference whether or not I pay down the national debt?
1
On the principle that this money was earmarked for ‘border security,’ I first chose those items that funded improvement in health, security and economic stability abroad, so that fewer people see the need to migrate from their homes. That took $2.5 billion. In fact, I’d be happy to devote the entire $5.7 billion to those programs and others, like better in-country infrastructure, economic development, small business loans, education abroad, etc. that will improve the lives of people in Central and South America. The crying need for the 21st century is a Marshall Plan for those regions, which have been destroyed by predation, crime and corruption, often caused by Americans.
25
I'm all for helping build the counties to our south. However, to welcome their refugees here is to also welcome the culture of corruption and anonymous violence that plagues them and that has driven them here. The Democrats should use their brains.
1
Yes!
An alternative would be to destroy totally those countries that are sending illegals, just kill them and then they won't come. Not a serious alternative, and of course we spend plenty so it is not really an either or.
How did we go from "Mexico will pay for the wall" to this?
41
5 Billion is nothing compared to the bloated military budget, a giveaway to military-industrial complex. The F-35 plane will cost one trillion, and the thing blows up all the time!
The priorities in this country are upside-down, and our "president" is an incompetent fool making things worse by the day.
1
Absolutely agree.
Excellent column on spending money wisely on focused initiatives, even if one does not agree with each one. The point is that each initiative evidences thought instead of a random number for an undefined WALL. Unfortunately between Trump, Republicans, Democrats and the media, I am left confused regarding what exactly are the security needs and costs. The Times should "build upon" Mr. Kristof's approach and link to a power point or map of the entire border, showing where the barriers are located, the most vulnerable points, etc., and then link to a few legitimate expert opinions on what is needed and the cost. This is what a smart high schooler would do to solve a problem, practically. CNN, MSNBC or FOX would do a great service just to have a commercial free 30 - 60 minutes with a Republican and Democratic representative each being given 15 minutes to present a power point f the needs and their proposal. If the parties won't do it, pick two legitimate experts.
2
If Nic's going to make this recommendation, I have about a billion things I'd like to do with the money currently going to Planned Parenthood.
Or the money to the ag industry via crop subsidies. I'm still trying to figure out why we pay 2x for sugar in this country when we don't have to, other than to protect sugar cane/sugar beet farmers.
Everyone has a constituency...which means everyone in Congress has their own trough to slough with cash...
1
If all $5.7 billion of that money were to be spent enhancing border security transit and commerce all Americans and our partners would be far better off. We could have a far higher interdiction rate finding and stopping cross border drugs 95% of which are either trucked, shipped or flown into our country through our ports of trade. More border patrol agents, more canine, better software and IT hardware and analytics dedicated to rooting out drugs and contraband would make us better off. Cutting transit times for commercial and private cross border traffic by 90% would ultimately enhance GDP by a minimum of 0.5% - 1%. Safer wealthier and happier we would all become. That would be taxpayer money well spend rather than wasted.
1
I would add to the $5 billion around half of the military/"defense" budget, plus money in the pot rescinding last year's tax giveaway to corporations and the uber rich...spending that wisely would be my idea of a dream come true. Healthcare for all, infrastructure, adequate housing, affordable college, helping college students with debt. Ah, the fun! However, with Citizens United causing politicians of both parties to be captive to thems-that-have(corporations and the 1%), I'm afraid that's what it will remain - a dream, unfulfilled.
1
Clearly the most strategic use of the $5.7 billion would be to invite Mr. Trump and his minions to travel on an all-expense-paid, one-way trip to an undisclosed planet. Once there, they will be provided with every life giving necessity and be free to create any kind of society and way of life that they see fit without fear of common sense or basic human compassion impinging on their schemes. As an alternative, the money could be used to repair or reverse the damage that Mr. Trump and his Republican yes men and women have already done to the environment, education, immigrants, women, LGBTs, and all the rest. Whatever is left can go to the workers he has stiffed over the years during his so-called successful business career.
16
Not even to another planet---buy a plane to deport Trump and his courtiers to any dictatorship on earth ruled by big money, ego and power--that will take them.
Remember the fine health care Trump promised? Nobody was going to pay for it, not even the Mexicans, and it was going to be so wonderful, remember?
Remember the war on opioids? He was going to do away with them, totally, until big pharma diluted the grief over all that death and the war was over.
Remember infrastructure? We were going to have fancy, shiny new airports, roads, bridges and whatever else infrastructure means. Not a penny has been spent toward improving our grade D minus bridges, all calamities waiting to happen.
Then there's the non-existent, don't-believe-what-you-see-or-hear climate change hoax. Could throw a dollar or two toward starting to contemplate forming some committee to formulate something about something. But it's a hoax, so there you go.
Trump's 5.7 billion is lunch money to him and the GOP. But what a difference it would make if it were spent on teachers' salaries, say, or upgrading public schools. Did I say public? Fie, Betsy will get rid of those give her a chance.
Could pump some billions into healthcare for all Americans.
Could clean up the environment, scrape some of the plastic off the ocean,
Could build baffles, buffers, even Walls! to keep out sea rise, from the non-existent climate change, even for Mara Lago soon to be Mara Glub Glub.
Nah, we can't do any of those things because they're all, shudder, Socialism.
2
The problem with the president's solutions is that they all make great one-liners to cheer at in political rallies, but real solutions are more complicated and require more effort to implement in a way that works. However, there are efforts that we know produce useful results. So, I'd put more money in scientific research, more money in early childhood education, more money in education in general, more money in ways of reducing highway congestion that do not involve more lanes for single occupant vehicles, more money for prevention of health problems as opposed to treating diseases and conditions that we already have.
3
I would like to see a large portion go to mental health.
And the good portion of the left over to increasing educational benefits of the poorer school districts. Including pre K classes.
And maybe educating our children how to think for themselves and know how to tell when someone is trying to pull the wool over their eyes. We are sorely lacking ,for many of our citizens ability to sort out the baloney is sub par if anything at all.
3
$5.7 billion would provide lots of healthcare in in America. Most states didn't expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Adults in those states who don't have a minor child at home get no help with healthcare. Plenty of people are driving around half-blind or trying to find jobs while not being able to read the application because of cataracts. Why are they waiting for cataract surgery? Because they have to wait until they qualify for Medicare at 65.
Cataract surgery for $50? Not in America. We make half-blind people wait until they are 65.
1
I'm shocked that you didn't mention educating girls in the third world. As I've learned from you it's one of the most cost effective interventions that has a broad range of benefits.
2
Yes! One of the very best uses of what little we spend on foreign aid. Although that should probably be taken out of the foreign aid money we already send that is for weapons instead of taking it out of the president's wall money.
1
Thanks for this breakdown, but I'd like to see Democrats put their money where their mouth is. Last year's defense bill was $717 billion, including $7.6 billion for 77 of Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. It passed the Senate with an almost equal amount of Republican and Democrat votes. This tool of global violence far greater in cost (monetary AND human) than Trump's wall request saw little objection from Democrats. It shows where most Democrats' real concerns are—not human rights but politics. Just because Trump is horrible it doesn't mean Democrats should not be held accountable for their actions. Our for/against mentality is making us blind to the ways our own side gets a pass for its corporate favoritism and lack of regard for justice and peace.
2
I would definitely channel a big chunk for infrastructure repair and upgrading, and health care for all Americans. Maybe it would come from the saving people around the world pile. I'm no isolationist, but I shy away from sending a lot overseas while our own are doing without.
Agreed. It would also have a multiplier effect - putting people to work in good-paying jobs and giving the economy a boost.
Since 9/11/01, each and every time any legislation (domestic or foreign), calls for more spending in the name of "national security," it has been approved. Consequently, and these are conservative figures, approximately $3 trillion has been spent on counter terrorism and $6 trillion on wars. Imagine for a moment if that mount had been spent improving and providing affordable education (K-college) and on health research, clean energy, new infrastructure, health care and on other programs that would really improve the lives of all Americans . That $9 trillion would have resulted in a more sustaining kind of national security - one based on "love of country." That love is slowly and sadly eroding.
3
What expense will be worth a dime in a century? I do not think it is at all clear that any allocation of any sum makes sense without such a long hard look. Infrastructure? Are we talking about renewing and enabling a culture of oil and private vehicles? Oil will run out. The question warrants attention. Education? How and for what? Is it predictable work will be this or that? Is the degree to which we will or should work be an issue? Everything is more or less up for grabs. No segment of society has had the gumption to say so. Everyone seems to be watching to see when crisis will shake us from reverie. Such thinking as I have done leads to massive changes society seems unwilling to entertain. A move to a world of regions envisioned by Christopher Alexander and others (minus cars!), a move to ethics and aesthetics in thinking as a basis for all human action, and the transition of religion from divided survival modes to accepting universal spirituality as the future. All these developments have to do with a willingness to allocate everything in the future to what will not hurt or harm the people and the world. This alone would make militarism no option at all. We would go nonviolent. We would see democracy as the essential nature of reality because only individuals, all individuals, have the right to determine how they will live. We would reject punitive responses to wrongdoing and use understanding as a basis for response. No takers, no future.
2
Absolutely flabbergasted that this does not include any allocation for (or mention of) climate or environmental protections... or did I miss something? The burning of fossil fuels has been identified not just as a leading cause of increasing and detabilizing climate impacts (that force people to flee their homes) but also the greatest threat to children's health globally. Even the military identifies climate change as a significant risk to Americans' security.
13
$5,700,000,000 is the DOWNPAYMENT Donald wants for the Vanity Wall. The total cost, lowest estimate, is $25,000,000,000 total, but most projections put it well north of $50,000,000,000 with the purchase price being spent again every 10 years for maintenance.
But $5,700,000,000 would go a very long way to fixing our obscenely inadequate immigration courts, for starters. Some could be spent reuniting the as many as 14,000 children Republicans took from their parents, many of whom have been sent to "Christian adoption agencies" in what is legalized human trafficking.
There are lots of really good ways to spend that amount of money. A medieval wall built as a vanity memorial to the worst president in US history is not one of them
15
We could spend it to help alleviate our nation of its excessive undocumented population by expanding information-collection and expediting repatriations. If we expel at least a million unauthorized foreign nationals per year the message will get out that America enforces its laws.
2
PHASE 1
First, the barriers along the border between San Diego and El Paso would be demolished. That would be accomplished easily and cheaply by equipping each caravan with the resources needed to do the job. Staging areas would be set up in Mexico. When the caravans get to the barriers, they just tear them down.
Next, migration routes would be improved to ease the burdens of escaping their plight. Freeways would be constructed from collector regions in Central America to destination nodes along the southern US border - San Diego, El Centro, Nogales, El Paso, the Rio Grand Corridor. Buses would traverse the migrant highways providing safe, pleasant journeys for migrant families.
Reception cities would be built at the destination nodes to provide transitional centers for migrants. Migrants would be counseled on the resources available to them as US citizens, and they would be assisted in choosing where to begin their lives in their new homes. Or, they could just decide to live along the border so they could be closer to their families in their home countries.
Social assistant networks would be established throughout the US to provide lifetime assistance for migrants.
PHASE 2
After the Southern Border Problem has been solved, PHASE 1 would instituted throughout the United States - both coasts and the northern border.
COST
The cost is irrelevant. As a great American leader remarked recently, "This is a moral issue. True American patriots never put money above values."
I would also increase the budget of the National Science Foundation, which is currently slightly above $7B. This budget supports basic research and STEM activities in the ENTIRE 50 states, which gives per state less than what even the poorest European country spends on research. In fact, the $7B includes fixed operation costs, so the money that is actually granted for fundamental research is possibly of the same order, if not less, than what Trump is requesting for the wall. What a disgrace.
7
Who of Trump et al's cronies will stand to profit from building the wall? Follow the money. Somebody wants those profits.
3
If Trump wants $5.7 billion for a wall, why doesn't he use his own money. I thought he claimed to be rich.
10
Because he's probably worth about that much. Why would he spend all of his OWN money? That's ridiculous. Besides he's not legally allowed to. It's his property to build on. It's the property of the United States of America. Please take this seriously.
The United States Federal Budget is 3-4 TRILLION dollars a year (based on the last decade). 5 Billion divided by 4 Trillion is .00125. It needs to be understood that people are flipping out over a once time investment that is LITERALLY ONE EIGHTH OF ONE PERCENT of the budget. Illegal immigration costs anywhere from 12 billion a year according to the most ridiculously low number I could find and 250 billion a year according the most ridiculously high number i could find. 40-60 percent of illegal immigrants are here as result of illegally crossing. Let's takes the lowest number. 40 percent of the lowest estimated yearly cost of illegal immigration is still 4.8 BILLION DOLLARS. Even if every assumption points in favor of making the wall look like a bad idea, the argument FOR the wall is strong. The argument against the wall holds no water. Please give this up. The conservatives got their minds warped on abortion and the liberals got their minds warped on the wall. Please understand this. You are basically behaving like the conservatives do when they talk about abortion. We need the wall.
1
I would use the $$$ to put power/telecommunication lines underground in blighted areas so we could plant many more canopy trees everywhere. The loss of trees for these now completely accepted monstrously laden poles is not worth the cost.
Canopy trees are fantastic for both our environment, for our sore eyes and for our psychological well-being. And don't forget to earmark some $ to maintain those trees. Just like we maintain our cars.
5
i would have included a choice to help pay down US student loan debt and one to help make public higher education free for kids who are first in the their family to go to college and/or those whose family make under 100K a year
I'd also have included a choice to increase funding for planned parenthood
also would have liked a choice to help put solar panels on the roof of commercial buildings and homes
5
I would love to have all Americans be able to sit around the kitchen table and allocate money to be spent by the government. We might see young people's priorities different than older Americans.
1
He left out Single Payer Healthcare for all, forgiving student loans, and a fighting Global Warming initiative. When I clicked on a few initiatives there, and the Medicare for children, it put my budget into the red!
1
The U.S. should use the $4-5 billion that we give to Israel every year, for which we get nothing in return, in order to build a wall on our southern border. This would be putting America first at no cost to the taxpayers.
6
The problem with the wall is not the cost. It's that it's a permanent anti-immigrant symbol, the anti-Statue of Liberty. Symbols define and unite us as a country. Do we want to be _defined_ as "we all hate poor Hispanics"? Is that really the _best_ thing we can find in common?
5
"The problem with the wall is not the cost. It's that it's a permanent anti-immigrant symbol, the anti-Statue of Liberty."
At the time of us receiving Lady Liberty, we didn't have an entitlement state.
I would pay down our crippling debt with it.
1
Thank you for this article. I don't think most people have any concept of how much $5.7 billion is and more importantly, what it would buy...instead of a silly and useless wall.
4
Worthy of a third Pulitzer!
This should be a mandatory exercise in every civics class taught in high school!
30
The Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP, or PAV in Spanish) exists in Central America. It has a good track record here in the US, where it started in prisons. In C.Am. it exists primarily as a community-based program and is only recently able to begin operating inside the prisons. It is desperately underfunded. Friends Peace Teams/Peacebuilding en las Americas, https://friendspeaceteams.org/pla/
3
I would build the wall.
2
Not a single option to address a single aspect of climate change?! Talk about clueless!
7
Right on, Mary L! Looked at properly, all of that money could be spent in that direction. Rebuilding and retrofitting our infrastructure to accommodate clean modes of transportation both personal and mass public, all the jobs that would be created in those areas, plus environmental cleanup, funding research and entrepreneurship could have us down to 0% unemployment in a jiffy.
Is that socialism?
Rebuild America's rail system.
5
Create those long awaited shovel-ready jobs. A prize for the person or group who builds the greatest number of tunnels underneath the proposed wall without being discovered. Tunnels work!
2
Well, Kristoff, when you are at it, you could also mention what % of the budget the wall money is, and carefully address the use of remaining 99% or whatever % it is of the budget. You would surely conclude we are wasting money left and right, and that we/you could spend it smarter, if you had genuine interest in the matter.
Alas, it is so much easier and politically expedient for you to continue peddling this 'waste' and 'immorality' of the wall fallacy and spit this cheap and shoddy piece of political attack.
100% on the real national (and international) emergencies: climate change and mass extinction.
4
1. Have Americans cooperate with corrupt Central American police forces. 2. Add thousands of drug rehab centers like the one down the street from me, bringing the homeless and pervasive petty thievery into middle America while no one in their wildest dreams would locate such centers in upscale neighborhoods.
3. Lead exposure is concentrated in the home. So I guess we hire federal employees to clean the homes of the poor.
4. Train felons in job skills even though no one will hire them.
5. Give a billion to Bets DeVos for our children.
6. And as to tax compliance, that was my job for 20 years. The money to the IRS will not be spent on zillionaires. Compliance is directed at a broad cross section of the public.
If you are going to spend billions to improve life for us all, you've got to do your homework. A sharp mind is more helpful than a bleeding heart.
Why should my tax dollars go towards saving lives in different parts of the world? We are already in 22 trillion dollars in debt and you want to spend money on other countries that have history of corruption. I don't support the wall but we definitely need to put in ground based sensors for tunnel detection and some barrier where its possible. Trump is wrong about the border wall but we defensively need to do something about securing border as only 42 (https://www.politifact.com/california/statements/2018/aug/24/kevin-mccarthy/mostly-true-visa-overstays-account-half-all-people/) of people overstay their visa the other come in illegally.
1
We also need a lot money spent to counteract the lies that a Trump tells and the division and discord he promotes
It is received knowledge here at the Times and its comments boards that the wall is high lunacy. That may not be true. He's a buffoon and easily walked into corners - he campaigned on "the wall" so we're not letting him have it - but $6B is petty-cash to the federal budget and even using the Times's data as it "debunked" Trump's claims, 10% of illegal opiods and even more of other controlled substances come across the boarder between ports of entry (the Times thought everyone would see that and say "only 10% - how stupid he is!"). But let me tell you, the opioid crisis is a spurge on America - maybe not on Manhattan, in Berkeley, or on campuses across the Northeast, but in the dying second-tier cities of the Midwest opioids and heroin are devastating the lower middle class. Six billion dollars US for a chance to slow down 10% of the supply - I'll take that investment. That's without considering any of the other benefits of controlling entry (like the ability to implement a reasonable, broad-based, economic and humane immigration policy - without control at the border, any and all policy isn't worth the paper it would be printed on). So, this certainly falls into the "even a blind squirrel finds and acorn once in a while" category - but on the 200-mile/$6B extension of physical barriers on our border, Trump is actually right.
This post will be dismissed here at the Times - -although we're the tolerant, open-minded and inclusive ones, we're just not that inclusive.
1
The opioid epidemic is a U.S. pharmaceutical created scourge. The Sackler family and Purdue Pharma, the main manufacturers, are based in Connecticut, not Central or South America. Odd that the POTUS never mentioned their complicity in this crisis, or was it just not beneficial to discredit his financial supporters.
Your list of options reflects staid, in the beltway thinking that got us here.
Maybe instead of "anti-gang" interventions we use the money for education, nutrition, social development.
If you really want to hamper gangs down south (which, don't forget, have their roots up here in America the Beautiful) crush the drug biz in El Norte, the source from which all good things flow in the south.
Legalize, for example. Provide liberal and unending treatment. Stamp out conservative paranoia and vindictiveness which prevents effective medication-based treatment and programs like needle exchange.
Pay for all that and more with Sackler fortunes, and a Big Pharma greed tax, and a bit more from Mylan and Shkreli. I'm sure they'd be happy to barter against the massive jail time they should be facing. Remember, Sacklers should be facing murder charges.
No concern for air, water, wilderness or seas? Huh.
You guys love "trainiing" because it smacks of control and making the lazy pay their dues.
Thing is, you so often train for jobs that just aren't there, or that don't pay. Considering the mad drive of the world's richest to remove human workers at every turn, you need to get over yourselves and start figuring out what you're going to do with everybody when "business" steals their livelihoods.
Let them rot (prevailing sentiment at the moment)? Force them into meaningless jobs at less-than-subsistence wages? What's your plan?
1
Why no category for climate change, environmental issues?
2
The $5.7 billion would be just the start if this stupid wall were ever to be built. And like all public infrastructure projects that are low-balled to win approval, once it's started there's little choice but to pour more money into it so that the initial investment isn't wasted. And ask yourself how much of that money will end up enriching Trump supporters and cronies.
1
Sounds good to me/ Kristof for president in 2020!
Your alternative plan for the wall money is a great idea. Unfortunately, Trump's plan to waste (at least!) $5.7 billion is only one of the looming disasters we're facing under this pathetic president. For a small fraction of the true cost of the wall, every American above the poverty line can donate to Democratic candidates in 2020 and save us from a flood of disasters that will make this wall fiasco look inconsequential.
1
Whoops...you missed an investment in cyber security which one area where we should be ramping up our investment in keeping America safe...NOW.
(See Intelligence Chief's report to Congress.)
1
I’d use the $$$ on research for fusion (not fission) energy !
1
Alexander Harrison was surprised at the liberality, integrity of members of the EB when it chose to publish a comment asserting that the author lives in a ritzy neighborhood in Westchester in a house resembling a mansion and sends his progeny to ivy league institutions. Maybe it is not a gated community, but it may as well be since it is neither diverse sociologically nor economically.So, Mr. Kristof may mock our president's efforts to protect the citizenry by constructing a wall which does work--look at the Israeli experience, but does he not see the irony in ridiculing our chief of state for wanting a wall to protect the citizenry yet for all intents and purposes he is protected by the soigne environment in which he lives which amounts to the protection that he would deny to others, average citizens, especially those living on the southwesterna border! Handsome is as handsome does!NK does go to regions of the world where his colleagues WOULD fear to tread, but he does not stay long enough to really make a difference in the lives of those whom he writes about! He gets his story and then "il fiche le camp,"makes haste to leave, or so it appears.
Ridiculous. Democrats JUST voted for $54 BILLION in "foreign aid" that INCLUDES border protections for things like A WALL in Jordan and other countries, but they can't cough up a paltry one-tenth of one percent of the budget for a "wall" -- which Customs and Border Protection, THE experts on the subject, say is at least the minimum necessary for significantly impeding the otherwise unimpeded flow of illicit traffic (including human) across the Southern border -- for our OWN country?
4
I'm with you in general, Nick.... but first there's a debt we owe which must be paid. Only after that is taken care of can any of the money be used for anything else.
I refer, of course, to reuniting the families which Americans separated from their children when they attempted to come here as refugees. Now the Trump administration is saying that it's just too much trouble to find these kids and reunite them with their parents. Apparently they have never heard of DNA. It is entirely possible to give DNA tests to everyone involved, and to reunite those sad, broken families.
This is a debt America owes. This is an American holocaust.... we owe this to the world, and specifically to the broken families. Not a dime for anything else until these families find their kids.
1
438mil for contraceptives is a good start, Nick. How about an additional amount for contraceptive programmes in Latin America, thus reducing the demographic pressures that lead us to think about building walls in the first places.
1
"The Wall" has much more value to the RNC and Trump if it is never funded or built. While the idea of a wall pushes the liberal hot buttons the reality of an actual wall would prove that nothing, absolutely nothing would change in the areas of drugs, crime, immigration, applications for asylum, employment, et cetera.
Like other "walls" we humans have learned that they don't work because the real problems are internal, not external - we only refuse to accept that simple fact. America's problems aren't coming from outside, they are coming from inside. We spend in excess of $10-Billion annually on illegal drugs. That funds the drug cartels that turn Central American nations into places people flee from because they cannot fight the American funded cartels. Our employers like low-wage illegal/undocumented labor over having to pay Americans a living wage and provide humane working conditions. The list goes on.
It would be better politically to fund Trump's wall and then grill him as to why nothing has changed despite his promises. Unfortunately, the political people and Trump actually prefer the fight in front of cameras.
FWIW: Congress is capable of drafting a comprehensive appropriations bill that would pass with well over 66% of elected officials making it veto proof, they just don't want to lose the camera time that comes with the "crisis."
Admirable as many of these selections may be, the vast majority of them would need to be ongoing efforts or interventions, whereas the upkeep for a $5.7B portion of a border wall would not be an additional $5.7B annually. A more appropriate menu for what to fund rather than the wall would include a selection of durable investments or one-time interventions.
Keep the lead reduction and bed net purchases, but add transit investment, decommissioning carbon-intensive generation and investing in green energy, building a national grid that is prepared for both a green energy future and secure against cyber attacks, etc.
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That's a good point for many of the items (not all). On the other hand, the wall that was promised in campaign speeches costs about $20 to $25 billion, not $5.7 billion.
I noted a couple for which it doesn't apply, but most of these are ongoing costs. And, of course a full wall is much more costly, but the exercise was with the current demand - $5.7B of wall.
Dems cannot give Trump even a little bit of a wall, even if fencing in some places is desirable. If they do it will set a precedent and he will be able to shut down govt again during his term and legitimately ask for more money for it. Bottom line, he will be able to crow to his base he delivered - and rob his challenger of a line of attack, because he can claim vindication. And if all this increases his chance of re-election by even a little bit, it is not worth the risk. The amount of good that can be done in America and globally, in the millions of lives saved and improved and global goodwill restored, by a better reallocation than what even Nick is suggesting, shows how criminally negligent our leaders are - they can truly put America First for a century but have zero vision.
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Since we haven't got the $5.7 billion this exercise is pointless.
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Cute Idea. My suggestion; lets use part of the $12 BILLION that goes for a new aircraft carrier to build the wall and the rest for starting a system of bullet trains for US (comparable to system that exists in China). We have over a dozen of these very expensive carriers of questionable military utility. Our competitors have only 1 each. There is no doubt in my mind that whatever security value the wall may or may not have, it is sure to have more value than ANOTHER air craft carrier
When you look at the detail of the many positive ways this money can be spent, you realize that the seemingly small number of $5.7 billion, and the republicans keep saying how little that is, is really an incredibly enormous number. It would be criminal to spend this taxpayer money on an offensive enterprise that is not necessary and will do absolutely nothing to help taxpayers.
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Wonderful idea, Nick. I'd go out on a limb and speculate that if such a plan were adopted, matching funds could be solicited from foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Clinton Foundation and others to multiply the $5.5 billion several fold. I would become a much prouder taxpayer if I knew my money was being used in such a fashion. (Great graphics, by the way, with a Lego piece being, dare I say, so iconic in our culture).
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We need to spend $$$ on our infrastures, such as bridges, roads, trains ( high-speed train to do what what European countries, Japan & China have been doing for decades) in addition to education, public health,and environmental issues.
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What about spending money on the environment--conservation, renewable energy, responsible waste management, money dedicated to the protection of national parks, clean air and water initiatives, etc?
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Sorry Mr. Kristoff, I didn't see any option listed by which to fund the reduction of our national debt, which currently resides at $21 trillion. That omission is telling
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I am at the point of telling Congress to give him the 5.7 billion. It will never be spent, except maybe a little for design and environmental impact studies, and the wall will never be built, tied up in hundreds of lawsuits. Then in two years, he'll be gone (which we have to work to make sure of and not just hope) and the whole issue will disappear. Then the money can be used just the way you describe. Actually achieving something.
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Sorry Mr Kristof. I believe in treating the problem where it exists. People don't want to flee their homes, loved ones, neighbours and communities for the US (an alien culture, rife with problems for them), if their lives are stable and secure where they live. All $5.2 billion could be allocated to supporting agriculture, infrastructure, healthcare, education and much else, in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Mexico to enormous effect. I know that these countries are infected with corruption and violence, and that severely affects the efficacy of what I'm suggesting, but I'd still go with the notion of the prevention of illegal immigration, rather than spending all that money on more security on the Mexican border, and these other measures you're advocating.
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Why has nobody demanded that President Trump explain what HE wants to do with this $5.7M? Sure, he says it's for "a wall" or "border security," but I'd like to see the details of how this will be spent! $5.7M is fairly specific figure, yet he waffles on whether it will be spent on concrete or steel, and what else will be included. When I write a grant to ask the government for money, I am required to include a detailed budget plan, complete with justifications explaining how the money will be spent. I want to see Trump's budget justifications!
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Do we not already invest billions in these types of programs?
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The point of this article is to make readers "feel good" about giving money away (money that isn't theirs) to those less fortunate than they are. It really does "feel good" giving stuff to people. Those receiving are so happy to receive. And you get to see the smiles on their faces. Some of them might shake your hand, give you a hug and say "thanks." Some might even sit down and write you a letter of thanks (the old-fashioned way, with pen and paper).
Do that with your own money, and I'll be impressed. Do that with other peoples' money... and you'll have a lot of fun and gain a lot of friends... until you run out of other peoples' money. That, I'm not too impressed with.
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The money spent is partly MY money, not just Other People's.
I quickly ran out of money, just providing healthcare options for poor children and their families. I wish I could have chosen how much money to put into each program. I also support methadone treatment, long term pregnancy and addiction programs and lead reduction. That doesn't even get me to poverty, education, infrastructure and the other categories offered. I'm more convinced than ever that we neither need nor can afford a border wall.
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I would spend the whole $5.7 Billion on 3K through Technical/College Education. Americans would be so well educated, European, Japanese and Chinese corporations would all move their operations to the U.S to access high quality workers.
This amount proposed for building the border wall is $5.7 BILLION.
The federal government spends about $4.2 TRILLION each year.
$5,700,000,000 divided by $4,200,000,000,000 = 0.1%. (rounded).
We're only talking about 1/10th of 1% of what the government spends each year. If you have $100 in your pocket, it's like we're talking about 10-cents of what's in your pocket. Granted... $5.7 billion is a huge dollar amount. I'd love to have that kind of cash in my pocket. BUT... Those, such as the author of this article, suggesting that paying $5.7 billion is like "bankrupting" the government out of ALL of it's annual spending, are being deceitful to the rest of us. If you're going to argue about this proposed 1/10th of 1% of federal spending piece, without pointing out that it's barely a sliver of a sliver of a sliver of the big piece of the $4.2 TRILLION pie, then you are really not being forthcoming to readers. You want to ask readers how they'd spend the full $4,200,000,000,000? Now THAT is a question worth asking!
The 5.7 billion is only for the first year. The total that would be spent is much higher.
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I would spend the bulk of this money on working for solutions to climate change. If we don't inhabit a liveable Earth, everything else becomes meaningless.
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I would invest it in health care and the environment protection programs.
Health care to address the drug abuse pandemic and health insurance for poor children.
Funds to protect the environment. Without it will be no country left to be "protected" from illegal immigration.
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The text of this essay attributes the 6 to 1 return on IRS funding to the Justice Department. The calculator attributes it to the Treasury Department. The number sounds reasonable, but which department produced the estimate?
I would add teaching a second language or two from kindergarten on up so that we are a more understanding and compassionate part of the world. Nations will believe we care about others instead of thinking we believe we are the greatest country. We don't need to be the greatest. We need to do good.
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NICK KRISTOF'S Alternative plans for the funds demanded by Trump for his 3rd century technology, a wall, are brilliant. What the US needs to do now, as do other industrialized countries, such as those with whom we have formal trade agreements, is a global Marshall Plan. I have a few suggestions of my own that could be used in programs both in the US and elsewhere. #1 Fund programs to protect people in the US from the effects of global climate change. A few ideas include distributing LED light bulbs to the poor. The savings on their electric bills could be used to fund other community center programs. #2. Fund a program for music in schools. According to Oliver Sacks in his book, Musicophilia, Music and the Brain, music involves more centers of the brain than any other human activity. It actually promotes growth in certain areas of the brain that increase its functioning. #3. Replicate the Danish program for expectant mothers. Community nurses evaluate and support expectant mothers, introducing them to others in their area and forming support groups that meet weekly. The program should include training for the mothers in infant stimulation to optimize the growth of their brains, especially during the first year of life, when the brain changes more than at any other time. #4. Increase music programs such as El Sistema, used in Venezuela to provide musical training for children living in poverty. Gustavo Dudamel, a very popular conductor is an example of success.
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I'd use the money to buy out Trump and Pence. Worth every penny.
If I could find a way to include McConnell in the deal, I'd do it in a heartbeat and count myself a winner. So much winning.
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Thank you for including the calculator and the alternative spending options. I quickly ran out of money --- even just trying to prioritize spending for better services (many preventative!) for infants and children. I am following James Heckman, here. https://heckmanequation.org/resource/invest-in-early-childhood-development-reduce-deficits-strengthen-the-economy/
I am mystified by why Trump's proposals always come out to cost $5.7 billion, no matter what they are. How is that possible?
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By 2025 the USA will be short 90,000 medical doctors. The bottleneck is the number of residency programs available. The qualified applicants are and have been available for a very long time.
Medicare pays for 75% of the residents in the USA. The sum is about $3.2 billion per annum. It's a large number, but not enough. The government might want to increase spending, but be creative on how they do it. Perhaps 50-50 programs as an example.
As you say, there are more effective ways of achieving border security. Trump's wall is a reflection from his other issues. One method of illegal immigrant deterrent is to find where they are working and tax their employers. It works elsewhere in the world.
You got it right on many of your other ideas such as, fixing the lead paint problem.
Good editorial!
4
Sorry, deflection not reflection.
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US needs to find a way to test and vet foreign doctors who immigrate here so they don't have to jump through hoops for years to prove what they know.
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You have to be an MD or DO to apply for a residency. There are not enough residency positions, so the competition is hard to imagine. My son is a resident and is married to a woman from an Asian country. They met in medical school.
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Nothing for the environment, on which all life depends? Nothing to mitigate global warming, which is on track to destabilize whole nations? Nothing on renewable energy, the necessary foundation for any plans we might want to make?
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I wonder how much money is given to Oil Companies in subsidies and tax allowances? How about putting that money (already spent) into new electric lines, wind, and solar energy? Wonder how far that would get us? It would save us offshore oil spills, and if we could use the holes in the ocean floor (from drilling) for pilings for wind turbines?
There are a lot of things we could do with the money we give to the military yearly too.
A wall is ridiculous that money should be spent on courts to process the people that are looking for asylum.
After listening to the joint Intelligence briefing, it seems abundantly clear that Trump, with his "wilful ignorance" is, outside of climate change, the single greatest threat to our national security. I propose we buy him out for half. I'd be willing to bet he would take $2.5 billion and pack up and be gone before sun-up. That would be cheap at twice the price and save us further international embarrassment. We might even be able to win back some of our former allies and friends.
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Give the other half to Pence to resign simultaneously, giving us the first female President.
My plan: $2.5 billion on early education and nutrition programs for underserved communities, which will help these children do much better the rest of their lives; $1.5 billion on renewable energy infrastructure initiatives and green-jobs training; $1 billion for security--to be spent primarily at major points of entry; and $700 million for seed money to community vegetable gardens and the like in poorer neighborhoods. Well, that didn't take long!
2
This reminds me—happily—of a proposal I used to float among friends. The proposal: Everyone paying federal income tax would have the option of dedicating a certain percentage of the amount paid to the cause of their choice. The assumption—unproven, of course—is that people would make good choices, dedicating their dollars to, say, "the homeless, the tempest tossed" rather than to Ego Walls.
4
Many of these choices overlook closing any economic gaps between white and African Americans. Also ignores much needed assistance to Puerto Rico.
I'm no more impressed by these offering than Trump's wall.
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This is such a great reminder of how little foreign assistance costs but how great of an impact it can have.
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My 18 year old daughter has borrowed $18,000 to attend a state college this year. This is in addition to my $7000 contribution. $5.7 billion dollars would give half a million college students $10,000. It's not clear how she will ever "launch" into the world with $75,000 in college debt.
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I suggest that your state school start with how much they pay the Commencement Speaker - several years ago, schools were paying $50,000 for the speech. One speaker's fee could have provided 5 $9000 scholarships and provided $5000 to compensate a speaker for his/her travel expenses and a small honorium.
A five minute surgery for cataracts is $50? Where in the US is this available?
11
That’s likely the cost if the surgeon is working with Médecins sans Frontières, free of charge. But your point is well taken.
"... we have a chance to reserve some for humanitarian causes abroad. For example, millions of people go blind from cataracts, which a five-minute surgery can fix for $50."
See "abroad" above.
The Trump plan is a $5.7 billion anti-anxiety pill to address the fear he is stoking.
I would instead spend it all on the infrastructure that drives economic growth. Roads, bridges, tunnels, rural internet, school buildings (you would be amazed how many temporary trailers are sitting in campuses across Texas), ports, trains, and so forth. Things that add value long term instead of relieving Trump induced fear.
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Almost any government expenditure would be preferable to wasting $5.7 billion on the wall, which was just Trump's simple minded campaign slogan, when we know it will have little or no impact on drugs or people coming into our country illegally.
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