cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/31570120
Four years after Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas would be the first state to build its own border wall, lawmakers have quietly stopped funding the project, leaving only scattered segments covering a small fraction of the border.
That decision, made in the waning hours of this year’s legislative session, leaves the future of the state wall unclear. Just 8% of the 805 miles the state identified for construction is complete, which has cost taxpayers more than $3 billion to date. The Texas Tribune reported last year that the wall is full of gaps that migrants and smugglers can easily walk around and mostly concentrated on sprawling ranches in rural areas, where illegal border crossings are less likely to occur.
State leaders suggested the federal government could pick up the effort. However, during President Donald Trump’s first term, when wall building was his top priority, his administration completed just 21 miles in Texas — about a third of what the state was able to build over the past four years.
The Tribune reported last year that the state’s wall program would take around 30 years and more than $20 billion to complete.
Unreal how gullible republican voters can be despite having information readily available
Well a lot of their “ready” information is outright lies.
Multiple sources is so important.
Maybe I take it for granted but school hammered in how to get information properly for over a decade of my life.
It’s also wild that the older generation started my life telling me “don’t believe everything you see on tv”.
Now they believe everything on tv and the Internet. Makes no sense.
The quality of research done by people who advocate for “do your own research” is only as good as their education.
I have a friend who is my age, graduated college with me and likes to do his own research. I love the guy, but his ability to parse complex information is simply bad. He thinks that his own research on medical issues is superior to that of all doctors simply because he interprets what he reads in whatever way he wants it to mean. He never even tries to debunk anything.
I love the guy, and I’ve known him more than half my life now, but I have to simply humor him on medical advice.
It shouldn’t need funding, Mexico was supposed to pay for it.
The cognitive disonnence is staggering.
Maybe they meant like Mexico NY? Or New Mexico? Maybe he said Texaco?
they should put a “Mission Accomplished” sign on it.
Can’t blame illegal aliens for everything if you actually keep them out.
You need a parade with “job well done” posters
Make sure the parade weaves back and forth through some of the gaps in the Texas/Mexico border wall.
“Mission Accomplished”
“Promises made, promises kept” is an actual thing they like to say to each other, LOL.
I’m sure the dim bulbs will tell each other this kind of thing even as donvict tHe pEaCe pReSiDeNt leads us into a war with Iran just because Israel tells him to…
It will always be a monument to the monumental failure of the Trump Admin.
Also Republicans as a whole since they were beating the drum for a border wall well before Trump ever joined their party.
The Great Wall of Trump, just like him it cost too much, it’s too short, and a failure.
Well at least they destroyed another big swath of the environment.
So some company got 3 billion richer by scamming the Texas government for a contract they knew would never be completed.
😱
They probably took alot of money but 64 miles of wall on the border is quite the build. Not 3 billion dollars worth though!
Trumpanomics
No, I’m pretty sure people got paid here.
Probably a close personal friend or family of Paxton or Abbott
Nah, government wasn’t scammed. They got to rant, rave, and photo op. They made it a big deal, hyped their base, and got reelected. Their base already thinks the border wall is built. Or that it’s Bidens fault that it isn’t.
Some of those politicians may have made solid connections for their cozy retirement on some executive board
You’re confusing politicians with the government, they’re two separate things.
not in Texas
Sounds like an excellent ROI for everyone except the voters who wanted this product in the first place and the voters who didn’t want it at all. But hey, it’s quite a sight to see corrupt capitalism working…for itself.
They never cared about a physical wall. They only fell for the aesthetics of stability that fascism promised them. That’s why no story like this will ever sway a MAGA. This story is for liberals to point to and talk about at brunch with other libs.
Something to make them feel like their winning in the “marketplace of ideas”.
TACO
Is the “Mission Accomplished” banner from Bush’s tenure still available?
That picture is fuckin hilarious if that’s literally as far as it got. It’s a perfect monument to the failure. Slap a plaque on it.
It’s a failure, yes, but they did complete 65 miles of fence. Just not all in one spot.
They basically built some free fences for a few ranchers who took advantage of the opportunity.
Well I guess that’s a glass half full? At least someone benefited from our wasted tax dollars to some extent.
At 50 million dollars a mile spent on shitty fences, I think we’re a long way from half-full.
At 65 out of 1254 miles, I think we’re a long way from half-fenced.
It’s fully half-assed
Utter failure, that is the legacy of the Republican party
Thats one way to get ices 3000/d arrest quota
That was so 2016. We are all about full on fascism now.
Hey, I smell a scam. What happened to all those billions that Mexico gave us to build that wall?!
