Posted on 12/26/2018 3:00:51 PM PST by Moseley
A total of $17,313,633 had been donated by 284,843 individuals in just 9 days as of late afternoon December 26, to fund part of the border wall. The campaign is a GoFundMe appeal started by U.S. Air Force veteran and triple-amputee Brian Kolfage. His campaign has more information at www.WeFundTheWall.com. A parallel appeal by the American Border Foundation has raised another $191,755 at www.FundTheWall.com.
Attempting to discourage this effort, Democrats and the mainstream news media are arguing that the government is not allowed to accept donations for a specific purpose, Congress would have to vote on it, and — to subtly sow doubts — “it isn’t clear” how this would work. The surge of popular support undercuts the narrative of open borders activists that the border wall is not popular or that support for Trump is eroding.
Criticism from ABC News, Democrats and others that it isn’t clear how this would work doesn’t mean that the organizers have doubts. Brian Kolfage declares that his group has contacts discussing the plans with the Trump Administration. The American Border Foundation claims to have an even more extensive plan worked out.
So can private donations help build Trump’s border wall with Mexico? I will say yes, as an attorney for 21 years, having worked for both Judicial Watch and Larry Klayman’s current Freedom Watch, and worked for five years in the federal government including in budgeting and expenditure issues.
First, let’s start with the clincher: Who would object? Courts state and federal have been waging a war on citizens who want to hold their government to the law. Courts keep raising the bar on who has “standing” to bring a lawsuit in court, closing the door on the courts to the citizens who pay for them.
(Excerpt) Read more at bigleaguepolitics.com ...
Watch the Democrats suddenly start calling for extra environmental studies or even claiming it will harm some rare eight-legged sand clam (or other made-up creature) that supposedly lives in the path the fence will take!
The Border Fence GoFundMe is private money, but once it is accepted by the government, it becomes public funds, and can only be spent as approved by congress
the Dims hide behind the “it’s a waste of taxpayers money” BS...trump can use it as ammo in 2020 election ...raising more funds for it..”the wall is mostly already paid for...elect a republican and it will be built for free”..or something
But wait don’t you have to know what materials are called for in what quantities and made to which specification before you can estimate the costs?
$2m per mile is more like a generic wall of indeterminate height and structure.
Is this wall free standing? Does it go beneath the ground and if so how far what is the height above ground? are there another features such as pointed spikes, razor wire an the like? How many sensors and of what mix are included? how are they placed? how do they send their data? how is that data used and interpreted? What’s the cost of building the data center? ETC
All of these add to or subtract from the cost per mile. What are the difference and what are the similarities to the Saudi and the Yemeni walls?
“The problem wouldn't be an agency accepting the money, it would be the agency having the authorization to spend the money without an underlying bill from congress.”
-—> Congress already voted in 2006. Building the wall is LAW. The only thing lacking is funding.
The underlying bill was passed and signed into law in 2006.
“The Border Fence GoFundMe is private money, but once it is accepted by the government, it becomes public funds, and can only be spent as approved by congress.”
-—> No, that's false. Again, read the entire article not just the excerpt.
DHS directives specifically allow for donations to specific projects, even if there are no appropriations for the project.
While the regulations created by different regulations are different, DHS explicitly allows donations of private funds to a specific project of DHS.
No vote by Congress is required.
I hate that gifunfme gets a percentage of this. They are liberal louts. But easy for me to complain I’m not doing anything.
“The potential abuses to such a precedent would be without number.”
-—> I don’t think so. Congress already voted on the Secure Fence Act of 2006, and it was signed into law.
The only thing that is lacking in the mandate of Congress to build a wall is funding.
Outstanding thinking, PapaBear.
The article explains that the precedent has already been set.
I agree. I don’t understand why it should cost more than $8 billion.
Maybe because so much of it is in remote locations. It is necessary to transport materials and people to isolated locations, house them feed, them etc.
But still we are building soundproofing walls along highways and it is not costing that much. Some of the sound-proofing walls would be more expensive than the border wall, because they have to be both solid and sound-absorbing.
I do think it was a big mistake to use GoFundMe.
There are other alternatives, but most people haven’t heard of them.
To state the obvious, it takes 1000 million to make a billion, so this is great but still a couple of drops in the bucket. I wish I knew why such things were so expensive. Far more than I would think. I know it comes down to time, materials, shipping, and prep/follow up work but still...
THANKS! I added an update in your honor:
[UPDATE: An alert commentator on this article at Free Republic reminds us of President Ronald Reagan’s appeals for students to send in their pennies to restore the Statute of Liberty. The private donations to save Lady Liberty were so extensive that “they wrote a book about it,” The Statue of Liberty: A Transatlantic Story. A private foundation raised $70 million, of which $63 million came from corporate deals negotiated largely by Lee Iacocca. See Corporations Saved the Statue of Liberty: A new book details how corporate America pitched in big time when Lady Liberty needed a facelift. H/T McGavin999]
I envision 4 chain link fences, each 25 feet apart. Each fence has razor wire on top. The 2 inner fences are electrified.
Cameras cover every foot of the fence, and 1 mile on the Mexican side. Infrared and motion sensors.
Quick reaction squads stationed every 10 miles, for a total of 70 stations.
A budget is a plan of action expressed in dollars. When government’s pass a budget implicit is that the actions funded are approved policy.
If we donated to gofundme money to build an 11 mile high tower, that doesn’t mean it will be built. The policy will have to be approved. Congress will say, you can’t build just because someone else writes a check. We have to approve the action.
The democrats will go to court and Trump will participate.
I contain e to believe a wall is two years away because of delays and court actions and if Trump is not re-elected it’s not going to happen, except for a few sections here and there.
Secondly the environmental groups have yet to hit this hard. That’s coming. They won’t start till Trump takes a bigger step to build.
It’s simply remarkable what this young man has done.
“Perhaps you could donate an amount equal to the proceeds you get from excerpting your clickbait here on Free Republic” Many publications do not allow posting the full article, but only an excerpt.
I don’t get paid for writing political columns, I only try to blow away the smoke of liberal lies and make the country better.
“If we donated to gofundme money to build an 11 mile high tower, that doesn’t mean it will be built. The policy will have to be approved. Congress will say, you can’t build just because someone else writes a check. We have to approve the action.”
-—> But have you considered that Congress already voted on this in 2006 and it was signed into law?
The left has set up a gofundme. The name of it is something like Ladders for the Wall.
I CONTINUE to believe.
Regarding environmental studies: The Supreme Court has already ruled that the govt can go ahead and build the wall.
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