Border Security with Lower Taxes

“What this country needs is a good 5¢ cigar.”

That sentiment has driven a lot of the innovation and success that defined the United States of America throughout the twentieth century. Come up with a good, solid, desirable product at an affordable price and come up with a means of getting it into the hands of the consumer. It is in that spirit that I am proposing the Border Security Tax Reduction Act of 2007.

From the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, rather than a wall we should erect a line of .50 caliber machine guns. Spaced at intervals of 500 yards, these weapons would have a high degree of overlapping coverage. Even 1000 yards would suffice, if the government wanted to institute this option on the cheap. A supply tunnel would be required to run behind the border line. A tunnel, because the maintenance workers would likely prefer to avoid stray fire when reloading or servicing weapons.

Production of the weapons, implementation, and maintenance of the system would be highly labor intensive. The preferred source of labor for all these endeavors would be those who are currently in this country illegally. Let them earn legal status by helping defend the boarder they thumbed their noses at previously. After say, ten years, they could be promoted from recognized illegal to legal immigrant status. Progressive steps could be included in the program to answer the demands of the path-to-citizenship crowd. Taking the equivalent of the entire New York metropolitan area population and attempting to deport them is logistically unfeasible. Therefore, we should take these lemons and make lemonade. Those who truly seek to better themselves will welcome this opportunity, since an ever increasing pool of undocumented labor continues to depress the wages they could otherwise demand for their services.

So, up to this point there is a tremendous amount of capital outlay for creation and maintenance of this neo-Maginot Line. The astute reader might well wonder where the tax reduction portion of this program comes from.

The Internet.

That’s right, the World Wide Web. In 2005, the web site www.live-shot.com caused quite the uproar by offering internet based hunting opportunities for those who are handicapped, or simply couldn’t face hunting that wasn’t reduced to the personal interaction level of a video game. The same concept can be applied here. Instead of live operators manning the guns 24x7, the weapons would instead be remotely operated via internet link. Cameras for sighting and automated firing mechanisms are proven concepts and can be readily incorporated into this plan. And that is where the profit making, tax reducing opportunity of this program comes in.

Charge Americans – heck, anyone in the world who wants to do their part to preserve the Union – one dollar per minute to man the machine guns and have their opportunity to take out those who would violate the integrity of our sovereign soil. Approved border crossing sites would be protected, and legal immigrants would be welcomed with open arms. Those who think they have a better idea for entering this nation will be forced to think again. The entrepreneurial spirit of the Coyotes will need to be channeled in other directions – perhaps creating legitimate businesses to grow the Mexican economy and make it less necessary for their citizens to leave home in search of a better job? Stemming the tide of otherwise honest people who are simply looking for a leg up in life would have the added benefit of thinning the human smokescreen that facilitates would-be terrorists sneaking in.

The US-Mexico border is 1,951 miles long, or 3,433,760 yards. With a machine gun erected every 500 yards, that would require 6,868 emplacements. That represents 9,889,920 billable minutes per day, or potential annual revenue of $3,609,820,800. More than enough to self-fund this program. Premium rates could be applied for target rich times and locations to further enhance revenue generation. With current border defense resources able to be redirected to other needs and the surplus also incorporated into the federal budget, while it might be minute the net result would be the opportunity to lower taxes for the nation.

That’s a pretty good 5¢ cigar indeed.