SARAH K. BURRIS/Raw Story
President-elect Donald Trump admitted himself that he never thought his “Great Wall” was going to happen. Just days following his electoral win, Trump revealed that the “big, beautiful wall” will probably just a fence.
Even Trump surrogate Newt Gingrich admitted that Trump’s wall wasn’t rea.
“He may not spend much time trying to get Mexico to pay for it,” Gingrich said. “But it was a great campaign device.”
Thursday, Trump further admitted that when he said that “Mexico will pay for it,” what he really meant was “Congress will pay for it.” Meaning, taxpayers will pay for it. The United States will simply send Mexicio the receipt and they’ll reimburse us. Promise.
Now, Trump’s wall is causing trouble for self-described “fiscal conservatives” in Congress, who are aligning themselves with Trump’s policies, even if it contrasts with their long-held political beliefs.
“We’re going to get reimbursed but I don’t want to wait that long,” said Trump. “But you start and you get reimbursed.” He later added in a tweet, “the dishonest media does not report any money spent on building the great wall for sake of speed will be paid back by Mexico later.”
“Today, the president-elect got slightly more detailed about who will actually pay for the wall and, surprise, it’s you!” MSNBC’s Joy Ann Reid said while filling in for Chris Hayes.
Reid explained that the Trump transition and the House Republicans are ready to move forwad paying for the wall with taxpayer dollars. “You’re welcome,” Reid said.
MSNBC contributor Josh Barro told Reid that his fiscally responsible sensibilities have a problem with using $10 billion of taxpayer money on Trump’s wall.
“It felt like shtick, like how could anybody believe this was going to happen?” Barro said. He then cited a poll that The Washington Post conducted in September that revealed only 21 percent of American voters believed that Trump would really build the wall.
“So, on one hand, that’s a lot of people, on the other hand, that’s less than half of the people who voted for him,” Barro said. “So, a lot of the people voting for Trump, they realize that, this was just a thing he was saying. It was not going to happen.”
Barro noted that Trump’s calculations of $10 billion are also a little off. Many calculations anticipate that it will likely cost twice that if it is built to what Trump promised to his voters.
“So, it starts adding up to real money, a billion here, a billion there,” Barro continued. “It’s something that ends up being a non-trivial item in the federal budget if we foot the bill for it.”
Reid cited another report that revealed members of Congress can’t go back to their districts and tell their constituents that there will be no wall.
“So, now you have Steve King, one of these Republicans, … say if Trump can get funding for the wall from Congress, I’m not going to say let’s wait for the Pesos,” Reid quoted.
It’s forcing the GOP into a contorted position to be fiscally responsible while racking up deficits for projects they didn’t even campaign on and Americans (2 to 1) are against.
“I think they have to be worried in both directions!” Barro said. “If they try to not appropriate the money to build the wall they could be attacked in the primary but if they do go along with spending what ends up being $20 billion or whatever on this wall, that’s something they can be attacked for in the general election.”
Check out the full conversation below:
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