Radio Renaissance - Jared Taylor - How Mexico Can Pay for the Wall
Aired: 2021-01-24
Duration: 05:29


=== A 4% Tax on Remittances (05:13) ===

[00:00:03]  Hello, I'm Jared Taylor with American Renaissance.
[00:00:08]  Donald Trump wants Congress to pay for a border wall.
[00:00:11]  The Democrats say no.
[00:00:13]  And that's why the government was shut down.
[00:00:15]  But there's an easy solution to the problem.
[00:00:19]  During the campaign, Mr. Trump said over and over that Mexico would pay for the wall.
[00:00:25]  And in fact, Mexico, or at least Mexicans, can pay for it.
[00:00:30]  Guatemalans and Hondurans could help too.
[00:00:33]  Here's how.
[00:00:34]  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.
[00:00:44]  A lot of them have jobs off the books, and so they don't pay taxes.
[00:00:49]  Or they claim to have 12 children, so they get huge deductions and don't pay taxes.
[00:00:55]  And they don't like to pay for health insurance either.
[00:00:59]  Hispanics are the group least likely to have it.
[00:01:01]  So that's another way for them to save money.
[00:01:04]  Of course, when they get sick or shoot each other, you and I pay for it.
[00:01:10]  The point is, they have money to send home.
[00:01:13]  It's called remittances.
[00:01:14]  And that money just leaves the country.
[00:01:17]  It goes straight into the pockets of foreigners, and we get nothing for it.
[00:01:22]  It's terrible for our economy.
[00:01:24]  So, how much money are foreigners sending out of the country?
[00:01:29]  Take a look at this map.
[00:01:30]  Especially at the pink circles to the left.
[00:01:33]  These are countries in the Americas, and the numbers are from 2016.
[00:01:38]  Mexico gets the most money, $28.1 billion.
[00:01:42]  Guatemala gets $6.8 billion.
[00:01:45]  El Salvador, $4.2 billion.
[00:01:47]  Dominican Republic, $4.1 billion, etc., etc.
[00:01:50]  The total in just one year that goes south of the border is $57 billion.
[00:01:56]  And look at those yellow circles.
[00:01:59]  Chinese, Indians, Filipinos.
[00:02:01]  They are shoveling billions out the door, too.
[00:02:04]  The total that left the country in 2016, in just one year, was $138 billion.
[00:02:12]  You could fund the wall by taxing that money.
[00:02:16]  The government shutdown was over the $5.7 billion President Trump wanted from Congress.
[00:02:22]  Taxed that $138 billion at just 4%.
[00:02:26]  And you've got your $5.7 billion right there.
[00:02:29]  In five years, you've got more than the $25 billion Mr. Trump says he needs to finish the wall.
[00:02:36]  4% is nothing.
[00:02:38]  If you live in 46 of the 50 U.S. states, you already pay more than 4% in sales tax.
[00:02:45]  There are four states that charge more than 9%.
[00:02:48]  The people sending the money would hardly feel the bite.
[00:02:52]  And since a lot of them haven't paid any income tax on that money, 4% is the least they could pay.
[00:02:59]  You could argue that only remittances to countries south of the border should be taxed for the wall.
[00:03:05]  But people come to Mexico from all over the world to cross our southern border, and the wall would stop them, too.
[00:03:14]  Once the wall was finished, we could use the money to hire more ICE agents to find and deport illegals who are already here.
[00:03:21]  Or you could give the money back to the people of the states that are losing it.
[00:03:26]  And why stop at 4%?
[00:03:28]  Tax remittances at 10%.
[00:03:30]  Why not 50%?
[00:03:32]  At that rate, would people try to run cash across the border in paper bags?
[00:03:37]  Not if we had a wall.
[00:03:39]  And if immigrants knew they were going to lose 50 cents on every dollar they shipped out of the country, guess what?
[00:03:46]  They might not come.
[00:03:48]  I'm hardly the first guy to think of this.
[00:03:51]  In March 2017, Congressman Mike Rogers of Alabama introduced a bill for a 2% tax on remittances to pay for the wall.
[00:04:00]  The GOP and the White House never pushed it.
[00:04:04]  Why not?
[00:04:06]  Politicians love taxes.
[00:04:08]  To line up Democrats, you could even offer to spend part of the swag on uplift programs.
[00:04:13]  They can bring back midnight basketball for all I care.
[00:04:17]  Who would oppose a tax on money leaving the country?
[00:04:22]  That would be people who care more about foreigners than they care about Americans.
[00:04:26]  Well, let them stand up and be counted.
[00:04:29]  And there are precedents for this kind of tax.
[00:04:32]  Did you know that if you wire money out of Oklahoma, the state takes 1%?
[00:04:38]  You pay even if you're wiring money within the country.
[00:04:42]  Oklahoma wants to keep its money at home.
[00:04:45]  And if Oklahoma can tax remittances, the feds sure can.
[00:04:50]  Well, next Tuesday, Donald Trump is finally going to give his State of the Union address.
[00:04:55]  He should propose a 4% tax on remittances.
[00:04:59]  That way, Congress wouldn't have to give him a dime and Mexicans would help pay for the wall after all.

=== Amren Podcast Channel (00:26) ===

[00:05:06]  It's a win for everybody.
[00:05:07]  And he doesn't even have to say he got the idea from me.
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