Yeppers. Every Mexican in this country sends money back to Mexico. Every one of them!
A billion here, a billion or two there...
Pretty soon it adds up to something real (like a wall.)
Here is another case where they all scream, “How can he say that!” and then come around to “He’s right!”
Drug lords would start a money delivery service and cut out WU.
That’s just the remittances.
How about the profits on drug running? Which, incidentally, the Mexican government has always shared.
This thought has crossed my mind many times.
We absolutely can make them pay for the wall.
Taxing 25 billion a year that is sent back to Mexico would be easy pickings.
Americans are largely unaware of the vast global economy they maintain via remittances. Roughly a quarter of a trillion dollars is sent in to the global economy every year— this is what we are directly aware of.
For many nations, including Mexico, remittances from the US are the number one economic input.
This is why it is rather absurd to pretend America is not exceptional. We fund a huge number of global economies.
We can demand cooperation on this vast enterprise or we can tax it or even shut it down. We easily have power over remittances.
Where there’s a “will”, there’s a “way” ..... the problem is that there has been no political will to anything about an issue that is hurting American citizens. Politics & power, not what is best for America, has been the rule for a long, long time now .... and the establishment types wonder why we’re mad.
Change the color of the paper money.
Likely that the drug industry is Mexico’s largest money maker. Isn’t Mexico now the largest illegal drug economy in the world? If it weren’t for the drug trade Mexico would be a dying country with an astounding negative growth rate.
I never doubted for one millisecond that this was possible. Like everything in service of the public weal, all that is needed? Political will.
Duh.
What I’ve been saying for months. A 50% surcharge on remittances to Mexico - much more constitutional than the income tax, and would help to depress the incentives for them to come here in the first place.
Posted about 15 stories down. Search before you post.
Just a threat of tariffs on Mexico manufactured goods flowing tax free in US, would make Mexico cough up money instantly to build the wall.
Trump is right again!
i guess perot was dead right about the “giant sucking sound.”
We could build a pretty nice fence for $28 Billion.
That’s $25 billion per year not being spent here in the States. Essentially it is removed from our economy.
It would be interesting to know whether money transfers are treated as taxable or not under NAFTA, or not addressed at all. My guess would be the latter but I’m not sure. If a tax was applied to international transfers it probably couldn’t be specifically directed at Western Union and would likely have to cover any and all transfers to any and all countries. Other countries might see the idea as a new cash cow and do the same, in reciprocity / retaliation against the American tax. Would a court possibly consider such a tax a tariff on exports (something explicitly forbidden in the Constitution). I’m not at all opposed to the idea, just thinking about the downstream implications. I know some people think Trump would be able to do a lot of things with a wave of his hand or with a pen stroke on an executive order. But even a president has to work within the system of government we have. Otherwise we’d just be replacing a wannabe dictator with a real one.
NICE COMEBACK DONALD: when Calerone said Mexico was not paying for no wall.....Donald said on broadcast tv The wall just got higher.
LMAO.
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L/E should check it out....if Western Union is wire-transferring monies obtained illegally...maybe from using multiple identities to get US government checks....W/U could be charged w/ wire fraud and money laundering.