President Donald Trump is asking Congress for a 10-year allocation of $18 billion for his big beautiful border wall with Mexico ("$18 billion sought to begin wall on border," Jan. 5), with the first $1.6 billion to replace 74 miles of fence in the current year 2018. My eyes glaze over when numbers get into the billions. So I did the math.
That's more than $21 million per mile, or $4,095 per foot of fence. Now we're starting to talk real money. Since this budget request is to replace fencing, presumably the U.S. already owns the land or easements, so that price doesn't even include the land.
During Trump's 2017 campaign, he bragged about how he is a builder and therefore he knows how to build a really good wall. At that price, it had better be good. He also told us ad nauseum [sic] that Mexico would pay for it. U.S. voters fell for this charlatan, but Mexico didn't, and now Trump's true intent is becoming clear.
There's no money for children's health, but Trump is opening public lands and offshore waters to oil drilling with no recognition of global climate change or providing any resources to slow it down. He provided inadequate help for hurricane-slammed Puerto Rico. Social security and Medicare will soon be under the axe, but Trump's priority is to build that border wall, costs be damned.
Martha Peck Andrews, Northeast Portland
