Report: Trump's Border Wall Now Estimated to Cost $70 Billion

President Trump’s border wall was one of his most supported campaign promises. As such, failing to accomplish this would more than likely alienate a portion of his base.

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A new report has been released suggesting that the cost to erect a wall along the southern border could now be more than three times what original estimates revealed, according to Senate Democrats.

As reported by The Hill:

The U.S.-Mexico border wall could cost $66.9 billion, in addition to roughly $150 million in annual maintenance, according to a report released Tuesday by Democratic staff on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The Democratic report’s figure is significantly higher than an internal Department of Homeland Security report, which estimated that the wall would take between three to five years to complete and cost $21.6 billion.

Building a border wall will also require years of litigation in order for the government to legally control all of the land that is currently owned by private citizens on the border.

While Customs and Border Protection indicated that it was “too early to say” how much it would cost to acquire all of the land, we can be certain it will be very costly given our southern border spans nearly 2,000 miles.

“There is no reliable estimate of the cost of construction of the full border wall,” the report states. “That amounts to a total cost to every American man, woman, and child over $200.”

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“The Trump administration submitted a $30 billion supplemental funding bill to Congress earlier this year that includes $1.5 billion for the border wall,” The Hill reports.

This is crucial in that no one is certain where the funds will come from. Trump can’t simply say “Mexico will pay for it” or use any other hypothetical because Congress won’t approve the funding that way.

GOP leadership has also indicated that they may not include money for the wall in their funding bill that is slated to be submitted to Congress by April 28.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer signaled that Democrats want the border wall fight to be moved over to the 2018 fiscal year funding bill.

“[The] immigration issue should be discussed in 2018, where there’s votes,” he said.

The time has come for Trump to either put up or shut up.

Forcing Americans to pay for the wall would not be wise going forward after promising hundreds of times that Mexico would pay for it.

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