THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

O, that great big beautiful fence to keep out the unwanted other people from crossing into the US. Precedent Beetlefart's first budget has come down and he is asking for $2.6 Billion to start construction on this monument to his ignorance and stupidity.

President Donald Trump will ask Congress for $2.6 billion to start construction on a massive wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, another significant step toward carrying out his signature – and most controversial – campaign promise.

The money is part of a $44 billion request for the Department of Homeland Security that includes $4.5 billion in additional spending for the wall, 1,500 new immigration agents, immigration judges and expanded detention capacity.

“We’re going to keep our citizens safe,” Trump said during a campaign-style rally in Nashville, Tennessee, Wednesday night.

The multi-billion-dollar request for the border wall is expected to kick off a major congressional showdown later this month or next about whether such a plan is a good use of taxpayer resources. Democrats largely oppose the building of the wall and so do some Republicans. It’s unclear whether a wall proposal can get the needed 60 votes in the Senate needed to overcome a likely Democratic filibuster.

Building the wall was hugely popular among Trump’s base, with supporters chanting “Build the Wall” regularly at rallies, and Trump has made it clear he intends to carry out promises to crack down on illegal immigration and bolster national security.

Today’s budget proposal outlines how he’d pay for those promises – by cutting foreign aid, environmental protection and the arts, among other programs.

But less than $3 billion is far from enough to carry out all the initiatives that he has promised supporters. Experts estimate that he would have to more than triple that amount to fund the wall, let alone expand detention and hire thousands more border patrol and immigration agents.

The wall will cost $8 billion to $10 billion or perhaps much more. Hiring new immigration agents will cost more billions. For comparison, the DHS’s 2017 budget request sought $7 billion to pay more than 40,000 officers.

Precedent Beetlefart is obviously planning to build the Trump Tower of border walls, minus the gold painted bathroom fixtures. I would suggest something simpler, a line of concrete block wall with a 10 ft tall picture of Precedent Beetlefart every 100 yards to beautify it.