cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/31570120
Four years after Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas would be the first state to build its own border wall, lawmakers have quietly stopped funding the project, leaving only scattered segments covering a small fraction of the border.
That decision, made in the waning hours of this year’s legislative session, leaves the future of the state wall unclear. Just 8% of the 805 miles the state identified for construction is complete, which has cost taxpayers more than $3 billion to date. The Texas Tribune reported last year that the wall is full of gaps that migrants and smugglers can easily walk around and mostly concentrated on sprawling ranches in rural areas, where illegal border crossings are less likely to occur.
State leaders suggested the federal government could pick up the effort. However, during President Donald Trump’s first term, when wall building was his top priority, his administration completed just 21 miles in Texas — about a third of what the state was able to build over the past four years.
The Tribune reported last year that the state’s wall program would take around 30 years and more than $20 billion to complete.
It shouldn’t need funding, Mexico was supposed to pay for it.
The cognitive disonnence is staggering.
Maybe they meant like Mexico NY? Or New Mexico? Maybe he said Texaco?
So some company got 3 billion richer by scamming the Texas government for a contract they knew would never be completed.
😱
Trumpanomics
No, I’m pretty sure people got paid here.
Nah, government wasn’t scammed. They got to rant, rave, and photo op. They made it a big deal, hyped their base, and got reelected. Their base already thinks the border wall is built. Or that it’s Bidens fault that it isn’t.
Some of those politicians may have made solid connections for their cozy retirement on some executive board
Sounds like an excellent ROI for everyone except the voters who wanted this product in the first place and the voters who didn’t want it at all. But hey, it’s quite a sight to see corrupt capitalism working…for itself.
They never cared about a physical wall. They only fell for the aesthetics of stability that fascism promised them. That’s why no story like this will ever sway a MAGA. This story is for liberals to point to and talk about at brunch with other libs.
Something to make them feel like their winning in the “marketplace of ideas”.
You’re confusing politicians with the government, they’re two separate things.
not in Texas
Probably a close personal friend or family of Paxton or Abbott
They probably took alot of money but 64 miles of wall on the border is quite the build. Not 3 billion dollars worth though!
i’ll never forget all the inbred bumpkin morons who were 100% convinced that “mexico’s gonna pay for it”
And now those same bumpkins are saying originating countries “are gonna pay for the tariffs”.
Haitians eating cats and dogs really lowered the bar for conservatives. Like it was low, and then that dropped and there were no more excuses for them in my mind.
I remember thinking Bowling Green was pretty low, but they just kept digging.
American Nazis are destined for failure.
The faster they fail and we hold them accountable for their crimes the fewer crimes they are able to commit.
Don’t lose hope. We’ll see most of these assholes swinging in the breeze.
Destruction is the point. It’s a success.
I like your style, Dude.
I like yours too man, you got the whole cowboy thing going on
I just hope that midterms cause a huge shift in Congress, and the next “leader” has the balls to have a Nuremberg trials like situation to hold the current admin accountable. I want heads to literally and figuratively roll.
I am a bit concerned about more election manipulation. The recent story on the 2024 elections and that there might’ve been some fuckery that is a bit more deeply advanced and nuanced than we’ve seen before has me worried. I have mad respect for the Russian apparatus’ technical abilities even though they are awful people. Despite hating what they are doing, they push the envelope of what (bad) hacking can do. Traitors in the admin are doing what they can to assist so they have help.
I’m not not concerned. I just hope that something good does happen.
It’s hard to swing when you don’t have a neck, but I guess we can make it work somehow
I suggest deep-frying them.
🤞🤞
It will always be a monument to the monumental failure of the Trump Admin.
Also Republicans as a whole since they were beating the drum for a border wall well before Trump ever joined their party.
The Great Wall of Trump, just like him it cost too much, it’s too short, and a failure.
4 years for $3 Billion but 30 years for only $20 Billion. Sure, guys.
So what happened to the $77 billion left to build the wall? Oh, they griffed it. Just like everything the Donvict makes, it goes to shit and he runs off with the money. Suddenly there’s no more immigrant crisis on the Texas border. Clearly it wasn’t the fucking wall that stopped it. Also, all that imminent domain claimed on farmers and habitat owners also just had their land completely stolen not for “imminent domain” purposes.
His next term is in 2026. That’s right, he’s going for a 20 year tenure. There is not a limit on how many times you can be a Texas governor.
He’s too popular. Precisely because he brought $77B into the state to line his friends’ pockets.
Who is going to run against Abbott that isn’t just a more Fash version of him? Any Democrat that runs will campaign on “Actually I always supported the wall and I’m upset he didn’t build it fast enough”. Any Republican in the primaries will complain that Abbott is too nice to Jews.
And then every newspaper and TV channel in the state will endorse him, because that’s what their sponsors told them to do. The state will split 46/54, with a weird 40,000 vote undercount in Harris County and six counties in the Panhandle voting GOP to a man. And he’ll be in for another four years while the Green Party gets blamed for another liberal defeat.
Any Democrat that runs will campaign on “Actually I always supported the wall and I’m upset he didn’t build it fast enough”.
Maybe they should try not being an idiot.
Sorry, I hired a political consultant at $12,000/hr and he told me voters will only support idiots.
Besides, we need to do something as a party to distance ourselves from Muslims, Women, PoC, and the LGBTQ community. They’re holding us back and scaring off all the white male social media millionaires!
I see your argument, but having an opposing candidate that can read the room may significantly increase chances of victory. Of course, victory is a very fleeting concept for democrats.
Thats one way to get ices 3000/d arrest quota
Unfortunate. The metal materials of that wall was an excellent donation program to local businesses.
/s…? 🤔
The Tribune reported last year that the state’s wall program would take around 30 years and more than $20 billion to complete.
Typical Cheeto. Just claim something is super easy to do and won’t cost a dime. When reality sinks in (usually years later after spending billions) that it’s going to be over 100 times more expensive than he thought and will take decades longer than he thought, just quietly stop working on it…
Next up: the golden dome 🤮
The Golden (Teapot) Dome
That was so 2016. We are all about full on fascism now.
How many college educations could have been fully funded for $3 billion? How many elementary schools built? How many other worthwhile problems could have been solved, rather than building a bunch of worthless crumbling garbage out in the desert?
Yeah, but that would be, like, helping people man.
Bootstraps motherfuckers!
You need a parade with “job well done” posters
Make sure the parade weaves back and forth through some of the gaps in the Texas/Mexico border wall.
“Mission Accomplished”
“Promises made, promises kept” is an actual thing they like to say to each other, LOL.
I’m sure the dim bulbs will tell each other this kind of thing even as donvict tHe pEaCe pReSiDeNt leads us into a war with Iran just because Israel tells him to…
So stupid. They will just tunnel under a wall. Also walls do not block planes, which is where 90% of illegals come in. They buy a plane ticket, get here, and then just stay.
I mean, ladders exist too. What a bunch of idiots. Americans are drooling stupid.
Good news for Mexico. I heard they were going to get quite a bill for that wall.
