U.S. Wall Funding of $1.57 Billion Yields 1.7 Miles of Fence

Steel-W0LF · 2019-05-22T15:44:36.033Z

Say I’m building a custom car. I order all the special made parts. Is costs me 15k in parts and 5k in labor as the bid.

To date the only part that has arrived is the starter. The rest is still being built by the supplier.

Did I spend 20k on a starter?

Eclipze · 2019-05-22T15:46:48.908Z

Not a valid comparison. You are comparing a unique part of a whole to a common part of a whole. More apt comparison would be an order of 100 cars and the first car cost 20k.

Jamerican · 2019-05-22T15:57:25.829Z

So I did a rough calculation, of a 1954 mile barrier along the southern border.

If so called conservatives really believe in less spending, this will not fly at all. This is definitely not fiscally responsible.

SixFoot · 2019-05-22T15:58:36.160Z

$30,000 a hammer, and lets not even get started on the toilet seats!

Auto129 · 2019-05-22T15:59:29.469Z

The promised 10 billion dollar wall is going to be pretty short, it seems.

vaard · 2019-05-22T16:02:22.680Z

I wonder if trump has a shell company somewhere in there collecting admin fees…

Plasmaball · 2019-05-22T16:03:23.763Z

It’s like how horrible are the gop with money? Seriously I never want to hear about government spending again from any of those folks

madasheck · 2019-05-22T16:11:34.005Z

Not all that surprising given the incompetence of this admin. But still, seeing those numbers … wow.

Spartacus · 2019-05-22T16:13:22.418Z

Trump in action…

bluedogdem · 2019-05-22T16:15:49.228Z

But but but Obama… Debt… Debt passed on to my grandchildren

WorldWatcher · 2019-05-22T16:16:33.284Z

.^

If we just imported more Central and South Americans to build the wall, the labor rate would go down and the wall to keep out Central and South Americans would get less expensive.
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.^^^^

markdido · 2019-05-22T16:20:49.738Z

GrandWazoo:

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

“The administration recently provided updated information to Congress on the status of its efforts as of April 30, 2019,” the attorney, Douglas Letter, said in a court filing. “Based on that updated information, it appears that CBP has now constructed 1.7 miles of fencing with its fiscal year 2018 funding.”

Well now we know what the latest price numbers are. Almost $1B per mile. And Trump has said he wants $5.7B to build 234 miles of wall.
Do supporters of the wall really think this is a good use of taxpayer money based on these new figures?
And how the hell does any government agency and/or contractor justify this kind of expense?

Do we know that the entire 2018 appropriation was used to construct the 1.7 miles of fencing?
Your link doesn’t say that but that’s what the link, and you, imply.

FloridaYankee · 2019-05-22T17:02:56.166Z

I can buy the material for a mile of 30 foot tall steel plate fencing like one of the sample walls I saw, including concrete and rebar for about six to eight million dollars and that’s a bit generous on the concrete but what the hell, it’s a govt. job. I’ve put up enough structural steel buildings and highway bridges and done enough industrial concrete to have a pretty darn good idea what all goes into that fence. To go even more generous on materials and govt. red tape let’s double that with a good cushion for profit and say twenty million for materials. That is very realistic.

An entire two lane interstate highway with a raised bed costs about thirty million dollars per mile which seems to me a similar volume of site work. But it’s the govt. so I’ll double it to sixty million a mile for site work. That brings us to eighty million a mile for materials, labor and machinery.

Oh hell, let’s double that just for fun because we know that’s what the contractors will do and rightfully so when the federal govt. is involved, they are almost impossible to work for on big projects and we are still at only 160 million dollars per mile and that is a friggin ripoff, but that’s what we’ll get in the real world.

Land acquisition is what we are left with and even if they took an entire mile wide swath you can’t get over 25 million per mile and that is for suburban residential prices.

185 million dollars a mile at total ripoff rates is about what I can come up with LOL and I do have some expertise in the field. I wouldn’t call it right up my alley, but I could run a job like that, I do have the requisite experience. The first mile costs the most of course, but not eight times as much at the rest of them. It’s a ripoff of such grand proportions as to boggle the mind of even the most dishonest of contractors.

Jamerican · 2019-05-22T17:35:42.307Z

MAGA!!!
WINNING!!!
BUILD THE WALL!!!
BUILD THE WALL!!!
BUILD THE WALL!!!

All jokes aside, how much worst can this get? It’s like we’re pissing away the things that truly has made this country great just to keep people of color from entering. Fear is a powerful weapon.

Plasmaball · 2019-05-22T17:58:15.510Z

Seriously what ■■■■■■■ thought this man was good with money and plans?

Who? Someone? Anyone? You could have put ankle monitors on every single immigrant seeking asylum here for 1.37 400 times over and still would have costs less…

But noooo the party of fiscal responsibility decided they wanted to take a dive off the deep end in a empty pool.

mobiusptc · 2019-05-22T17:59:30.932Z

It’s Mexican dollars so it doesn’t really matter. Not like US taxpayer are on the hook for it anyway

Steel-W0LF · 2019-05-22T18:07:45.281Z

Eclipze:

Not a valid comparison. You are comparing a unique part of a whole to a common part of a whole. More apt comparison would be an order of 100 cars and the first car cost 20k.

The point is: what amount of fence was that contract for 1.7bil for? The amount that has been installed to date doesn’t really matter at this point. The question is how much did it pay for.

Cynic · 2019-05-22T18:22:43.702Z

Thanks Trump!

DougBH · 2019-05-22T18:24:36.495Z

What nonsense. The article doesn’t give nor care exactly what that money was spent on, if it was spent at all. Just like the House, this is all for political show.
Does it take planning before a wall is constructed?
Do legal issues become involved?

No, that money wasn’t spent on building 1.7 miles of fencing. If it was spent, it was spent on preparation. Everyone involved in making a show of this knows that.

Zander · 2019-05-23T04:35:26.624Z

DougBH:

What nonsense. The article doesn’t give nor care exactly what that money was spent on, if it was spent at all. Just like the House, this is all for political show.
Does it take planning before a wall is constructed?
Do legal issues become involved?

No, that money wasn’t spent on building 1.7 miles of fencing. If it was spent, it was spent on preparation. Everyone involved in making a show of this knows that.

Oh, it’s definitely a show alright. Hell, we smash hydrogen atoms against each other at nearly the speed of light around a 13 mile circuit for less than that per year.

I can’t wait for the next season.