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A 4% Tax on Remittances
00:05:13
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| Hello, I'm Jared Taylor with American Renaissance. | |
| Donald Trump wants Congress to pay for a border wall. | |
| The Democrats say no. | |
| And that's why the government was shut down. | |
| But there's an easy solution to the problem. | |
| During the campaign, Mr. Trump said over and over that Mexico would pay for the wall. | |
| And in fact, Mexico, or at least Mexicans, can pay for it. | |
| Guatemalans and Hondurans could help too. | |
| Here's how. | |
| As you know, lots of Mexicans and Central Americans, most of them men, come here legally or illegally to work and send money back home. | |
| A lot of them have jobs off the books, and so they don't pay taxes. | |
| Or they claim to have 12 children, so they get huge deductions and don't pay taxes. | |
| And they don't like to pay for health insurance either. | |
| Hispanics are the group least likely to have it. | |
| So that's another way for them to save money. | |
| Of course, when they get sick or shoot each other, you and I pay for it. | |
| The point is, they have money to send home. | |
| It's called remittances. | |
| And that money just leaves the country. | |
| It goes straight into the pockets of foreigners, and we get nothing for it. | |
| It's terrible for our economy. | |
| So, how much money are foreigners sending out of the country? | |
| Take a look at this map. | |
| Especially at the pink circles to the left. | |
| These are countries in the Americas, and the numbers are from 2016. | |
| Mexico gets the most money, $28.1 billion. | |
| Guatemala gets $6.8 billion. | |
| El Salvador, $4.2 billion. | |
| Dominican Republic, $4.1 billion, etc., etc. | |
| The total in just one year that goes south of the border is $57 billion. | |
| And look at those yellow circles. | |
| Chinese, Indians, Filipinos. | |
| They are shoveling billions out the door, too. | |
| The total that left the country in 2016, in just one year, was $138 billion. | |
| You could fund the wall by taxing that money. | |
| The government shutdown was over the $5.7 billion President Trump wanted from Congress. | |
| Taxed that $138 billion at just 4%. | |
| And you've got your $5.7 billion right there. | |
| In five years, you've got more than the $25 billion Mr. Trump says he needs to finish the wall. | |
| 4% is nothing. | |
| If you live in 46 of the 50 U.S. states, you already pay more than 4% in sales tax. | |
| There are four states that charge more than 9%. | |
| The people sending the money would hardly feel the bite. | |
| And since a lot of them haven't paid any income tax on that money, 4% is the least they could pay. | |
| You could argue that only remittances to countries south of the border should be taxed for the wall. | |
| But people come to Mexico from all over the world to cross our southern border, and the wall would stop them, too. | |
| Once the wall was finished, we could use the money to hire more ICE agents to find and deport illegals who are already here. | |
| Or you could give the money back to the people of the states that are losing it. | |
| And why stop at 4%? | |
| Tax remittances at 10%. | |
| Why not 50%? | |
| At that rate, would people try to run cash across the border in paper bags? | |
| Not if we had a wall. | |
| And if immigrants knew they were going to lose 50 cents on every dollar they shipped out of the country, guess what? | |
| They might not come. | |
| I'm hardly the first guy to think of this. | |
| In March 2017, Congressman Mike Rogers of Alabama introduced a bill for a 2% tax on remittances to pay for the wall. | |
| The GOP and the White House never pushed it. | |
| Why not? | |
| Politicians love taxes. | |
| To line up Democrats, you could even offer to spend part of the swag on uplift programs. | |
| They can bring back midnight basketball for all I care. | |
| Who would oppose a tax on money leaving the country? | |
| That would be people who care more about foreigners than they care about Americans. | |
| Well, let them stand up and be counted. | |
| And there are precedents for this kind of tax. | |
| Did you know that if you wire money out of Oklahoma, the state takes 1%? | |
| You pay even if you're wiring money within the country. | |
| Oklahoma wants to keep its money at home. | |
| And if Oklahoma can tax remittances, the feds sure can. | |
| Well, next Tuesday, Donald Trump is finally going to give his State of the Union address. | |
| He should propose a 4% tax on remittances. | |
| That way, Congress wouldn't have to give him a dime and Mexicans would help pay for the wall after all. | |
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Amren Podcast Channel
00:00:26
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| It's a win for everybody. | |
| And he doesn't even have to say he got the idea from me. | |
| Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. | |
| Also, take a look at our podcast channel. | |
| That's at Amren Podcasts on YouTube. | |
| Please visit our website at amren.com. | |