$2.5 Billion To Be Wasted On Southern Border

Republicans used to tag Democrats with the "tax and spend" label. Who knew it would be a Republican administration that would set new records for spending and wasting the taxpayer's dollars? Now Republicans are about a month away from spending another $2.5 billion on a huge boondoggle that is destined to fail.

In an effort to try and turn the coming election around, Republicans are in the middle of a ridiculous fear campaign. They hope to scare enough voters with fear of terrorists, so they won't be voted out of power in November. Part of that effort has been to give the false impression that terrorists are crossing our southern border. The $2.5 billion boondoggle is part of that effort. It will be spent on a fence and high-tech gadgets to "secure" our southern border.

The Star-Telegram is reporting today that there are five bidders left that are competing for the huge contract. It is unknown exactly what the money will buy, because rather than explain exactly what is wanted, the government is letting each contractor decide how to best spend the money. Each company is coming up with its own mix of fences, cameras and sensors. The remaining five companies are:

Boeing
Lockheed Martin
Northrop Grumman
Raytheon
Ericsson [Swedish]

Republicans are also trying to scare Americans into believing that our economic woes are due to illegal immigrants. Otherwise they would have to admit that they have grossly mishandled the economy by giving tax breaks to the rich, putting more tax burden on the middle-class, exporting good-paying jobs and creating poor-paying jobs to replace them, cutting college financial aid, NAFTA, CAFTA, allowing unrestrained graft and corruption, and throwing money down the bottomless pit called the Iraq War. Before you let them blame their own incompetence on the illegal immigrants, here are some facts you need to know.

Terrorists do not enter our country by crossing the deserts of our southern border. Not a single foreign terrorist has entered our country that way. Why should they? They have the money and technology to create false identification, so they don't have to brave the dangers of our southern border. They just hop on an airplane, or drive down from Canada. The only people crossing our southern border are the desperate people - the ones who have no other choice. Dozens of them die each year trying to cross these southern deserts.

Illegal immigrants are NOT a drag on our economy. Some say they don't pay taxes, but use our services. This is not true. They do pay taxes. Anyone in Texas must pay the sales tax [as well as cigarette tax, gas tax, etc.] whether they are here illegally or not. They also pay property taxes through rent or house payments. While it is true that some get paid with unreported cash, these people are paid so little that they wouldn't owe taxes even if they filed a tax return. Most undocumented workers are working under a fake social security card. This means the taxes are taken out of their check [medicare and social security taxes are also taken out], but at the end of the year, they cannot get any money back by filing a return. This means they actually pay more taxes than an American would.

No one knows how many illegal aliens are in the United States. They have never been counted. How could they be counted? They certainly don't participate in the census, since they live their lives trying not to be discovered. The U.S. government throws all kinds of figures around, but even they admit that their statistics are just ASSUMPTIONS. Remember this as the Republicans try to scare you with huge numbers - the numbers are not real.

Illegal aliens are not the reason our economy is not doing well. Republican policies are the reason. They have given the corporations a free hand, and left the rest of us to fend for ourselves. There is only one cure for our ailing economy, and it has nothing to do with illegal aliens. We must vote the Republicans out of power. Anything less would be like putting a bandaid on a bullet wound.