While detailed funding plans have yet to emerge, in an interview on the Ruthless podcast released on June 15th, Governor Abbott hinted that the project may yet take donations from the public to pay for it.
Twitter was quick to react with skepticism over the proposal:
Is it the case that the federal money comes with strings attached that prevent its use for such a purpose?
Perhaps a reality check has forced the state to reassess the costs of the project?
Does Abbott think that the crowd funding model is a means of getting the wall built without having to dip into government money?
A doomed project?
Like many things promised by President Trump during his term in charge the border wall was a a failure from the moment it began.
He promised to build "a great wall" that Mexico would pay for. Instead, work carried out under Trump did little more than replace barriers that had been installed by previous administrations. Mexico has not paid for anything.
The US-Mexico border spans approximately 2,000 miles and prior to Trump, 654 miles of that had some form of wall or barrier. At the conclusion of his presidency that had increased to just 657 miles.
Questions must surely exist, not only regarding what possible merit the project has as a means of resolving the ongoing US-Mexico border crisis, but also what Abbott hopes to achieve with a relatively smaller amount of money to build it?
Remember the last time a wall project was crowd funded?
It seems relevant to remember what happened the last time crowd funding was used as a means of extending the wall. Via their online crowd funding campaign 'We Build The Wall', Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage raised over $25 million of donated public money that was intended to be used to build a section of wall in Sunland, New Mexico.
Kolfage, Bannon, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea were later indicted on charges of conspiracies to commit wire fraud and money laundering. They were later charged with diverting around $1.3 million of donations for personal use.
Even if Abbott's scheme goes ahead, it will carry a difficult legacy, one that has already prompted comparisons with Bannon's project.
What about the energy shortages?
With Texas on the brink of summer, residents are being asked to take measures to use less energy out of fears that the power grid won't sustain the state through the heat of a Texas summer. Given a clear need for additional energy generating capacity, many Texans are questioning whether the money being spent on a wall might be better put to that use?
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