Building The Wall, Or Not

PRESIDENT TRUMP, the self proclaimed "stable genius" assures ua that the fifty billion dollar trade deficit the U.S> has with Mexico proves that not only can Mexico pay for the wall, but that they shall. Where he gets this, nobody seems to know. In the first place, the trade deficit has to do entirely with money that corporations and individuals owe each other across borders, and has nothing to do with government money. The Mexican government can't afford tp pave roads, pay for health insurance, or education and medical care, much less a wall it doesn't want and isn't going to build. There has so far been no congressional action on the wall, nor on any aspect of immigration, which was cowardly-ly left out of the much celebrated but greatly bloated budget that passed in the wee hours last night Not building the great wall of Trump is a no brainer, as they say. Border patrol will tell you that if you build an eighteen foot wall, folks'll bring a nineteen foot ladder. Then too, much of the two thousand mile long border is too rugged for wall building, and much of the land on the American side is privately owned. Can we say "imminent domain mess"? A wall along the entire Rio Grande would disrupt numerous species of animals which need to migrate back and forth from Mexico to the U.S. on a regular basis, for survival. Were I in congress, if and when the bill for the wall comes up, you could count on me to rise and proclaim: "no problem! The president promises that Mexico will pay for it, so , let's just sit back and watch Mr. Trump work is business acumen deal making magic!" How long do you suppose we'd be waiting?