The American Spectator

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Anti-Fence Numbers Game

By John Tabin on 1.9.07 @ 7:50PM

Kerry Howley thinks $49 billion is too expensive for a border fence. But look closer:

The Dec. 12, 2006, nonpartisan congressional report said the corps predicted that the combined cost of building and maintaining the fence over a 25-year life cycle would range from $16.4 million to $70 million per mile, depending on how heavily and how often the fence is damaged by would-be border jumpers. At $70 million per mile, a 700-mile fence would cost $49 billion.

So $49 billion is the maximum estimate of the cost of the fence over 25 years -- which comes out to less than $2 billion a year. We're talking chump change in federal budget terms.

topics:
Federal Budget