So Who Is Really Paying For The Wall?

Trump promised that Mexico would pay for the wall and some of his voters believed him because they believed that he was not only the great negotiator but a hard-headed business man rather than some government flunky type guy. But the first orders have finally, after nearly three years come through, and guess what--you, the American taxpayer are paying for the wall. Luckily that doesn't mean that Donald, or Donald Jr., or Ivanka, or Eric, or Tiffany, or either of the ex-wives will be paying since they are like Leona Helmsley(only little people pay taxes). They have tax shelters and tax lawyers who make sure that they will never pay a cent in federal tax.  They haven't paid tax in years and may never have to since they were the kind of people who wrote those tax write offs in the first place. Trump and his children and his wives pay very little tax and that comes from other taxable goods like clothing.

So who does pay for the wall now? Well the money comes out of Department of Defense funds so it clearly comes out of your pocket. Trump doesn't pay tax so it will never come out of his pocket. But what does it mean when the Department of Defense has to take money from projects that were already bid out? It means that places that were expecting Defense Department money to upgrade their facilities will now have to either find new money somewhere else--keep in mind that it is the Department of Defense so most of these projects can't just ask local government to cover it- or they have to go without the upgrades that had already been approved and budgeted. My former state of residence, Utah, will lose out to the tune of $54M of expected contracted projects. That's small change compared to Puerto Rico, an American territory whose inhabitants are American citizens and have been since the turn of the last century, which will lose $450M dollars in funds designated to help them recover from Hurricane Maria.

I have no doubt that that last little item pleases Trump since he clearly doesn't know and doesn't care that Puerto Rico is America. You know what else is America? All the military bases around the country and around the world that will lose money and need construction now. That includes West Point and the Air Force Academy as well as multiple schools on bases around the world.

But whose money is it? It was designated for the military so they will be starved, but it comes from your pocket. This time it's $3.6 billion. Next time it will be more. But it will all be your money while Trump's tax bill continues to pay off rich people and he himself doesn't pay taxes. Not a dime from his pocket but hundreds from yours.