Opinion: About that wall....
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So ... whatever happened to that Mexican border fence? Turns out it’s going to be a good deal more expensive than originally thought:
The cost of building and maintaining a double set of steel fences along 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border could be five to 25 times greater than congressional leaders forecast last year, or as much as $49 billion over the expected 25-year life span of the fence, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. A little-noticed study the research service released in December notes that even the $49 billion does not include the expense of acquiring private land along hundreds of miles of border or the cost of labor if the job is done by private contractors -- both of which could drive the price billions of dollars higher. [...] Congress has so far provided the Department of Homeland Security with $1.5 billion for upgrading infrastructure and technology at the border this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. No money has been allocated specifically for the 700 miles of fence.
Just how much money is $50 billion? According to an unscientific five-minute Google search, it’s ....
* The amount of U.S. foreign aid to Egypt since 1979.
* The original ‘upper limit’ estimate for the 2002 cost of the Afghanistan war and Iraq saber-rattling.
* Google’s market cap, circa March 2005.
* The amount of money U.S. college students spend each year.
* About half the annual Air Force budget.
* And the amount of money currently paid into Social Security by illegal immigrants without hope of getting any back.
Link via Reason’s Hit & Run.