Kerby Anderson

Critics of President Donald Trump’s wall say that is it too expensive. I think this criticism provides a great opportunity to remind people how much money the federal government spends. So let’s take a moment and look at what such a wall might cost and compare it to other items in the federal budget. When I was on the radio the other day, I reminded my audience that the federal budget last year was $3.8 trillion. If you divide that amount by the 365 days in the year, you find that each day the federal government spends about $10.4 billion. Some have estimated that the wall President Trump is proposing might cost about $12-15 billion, which will probably be spread out over 2-3 years. The total cost of the wall over that period of time equals about a day and a half of federal operating cost. Jeff Poor wrote a column recently about questionable federal government expenditures that exceed Trump’s wall. A Government Accountability Office report estimated in 2014 that the federal government made $59.9 billion in improper Medicare payments and $17.5 billion in improper Medicaid payments. The total of $76.4 billion would be roughly the cost of five border walls. The Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter jet project costs an estimated $379 billion. That would be roughly the cost of 25 border walls. You might remember that Donald Trump criticized the cost of the project and the cost overruns. Now perhaps you can see why. The earned-income-tax-credit provides $69 billion in benefits to 28 million households. And while we are talking about poverty, consider the cost of the more than 50 year “War on Poverty.” Taxpayers have footed $22 trillion bill, which would be 1,466 border walls. Once you put the cost of a wall in context, I hope you can see that it wouldn’t even be one of the largest expenses in the federal government.