Column By Mike Bibb
“There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration. I’m going to make sure that we have border protection, but it’s going to be based on making sure that we use high-tech capacity to deal with it. And at the ports of entry – that’s where all the bad stuff is happening.”
Joe Biden speaking before the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Aug. 5, 2020
Guess Joe forgot to mention there’s a lot of “bad stuff” going on between the ports of entry, too.
Washington’s hypocrisy seems to feed upon itself. Apparently, there’s no stunt so foolish that won’t be tried.
In a new twist on a “No border wall for thee, but a shiny new wall for me” theme, President Joe Biden continues to flip the middle finger to a public being overrun by millions of illegal border crossers.
For a guy who has been a mediocre politician nearly all his adult life, he’s done very well on a Congressional salary. His lifestyle certainly appears to reflect an income in excess of his former $174,000 annual senator compensation, or his present $400,000 presidential pay.
Book deals and speaking engagements help supplement Joe’s income, I suppose. Maybe his son, Hunter, is helping out, too.
As an example, the Bidens have a cozy beach cottage at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware valued at $2.7 million. Joe, and his wife, Jill, spend a lot of time there. They also have another home in Wilmington, Delaware, believed to be worth about $1.4 million.
Joe’s fond of both places. Actually, it’s recently been revealed during the first year and a half of his presidency, he’s managed to slip out of his Washington office for a cumulative five months – an average of over eight days of vacation a month for 18 months.
During his reoccurring bouts with COVID, the lure of the beach was impossible to resist. As soon as he was released from isolation, he immediately headed to Rehoboth.
Therapy and recuperation, no doubt.
That’s all fine and dandy. Everyone should have a beach hideaway to relieve the stress or someplace they can skip away to unwind from the daily chores of life.
Unfortunately, most people don’t. Particularly folks living along our southern border with Mexico.
In their neighborhoods, stress is an everyday occurrence, much of it brought on by a reluctant Congress and president who’ve totally ignored the disasters being perpetrated along the 2,000-mile boundary.
Just as offensive, Joe manages to romp in the surf and bike the local trails of Rehoboth Beach nearly every weekend, but he just can’t seem to find the time to visit Eagle Pass, Texas, or Yuma, Arizona to get a first-hand glimpse of the calamity his administration is inflicting.
Not once.
Out of desperation and upcoming election expediency, he suddenly decided it was okay to patch a few holes in the border fence. Maybe that will reduce illegal crossers by a few hundred a day instead of the normal several thousand.
To date, Joe’s refusal to seal the border has resulted in an estimated two-million apprehensions, with several hundred thousand “got-aways” – people Border Patrol did not encounter and traveled unreported into the country’s interior.
The situation is totally out of control and getting worse. Not everyone is coming to pick lettuce or clean motel rooms.
There’s something else going on, and we’ll probably eventually find out what it is in very unpleasant ways.
Yet, Joe has concluded it’s really irrelevant to have border wall security, but absolutely necessary his beach home has a taxpayer-funded half-million-dollar fence to keep out the riff-raff, fentanyl, and human traffickers.
After all, he can’t allow “just anyone” to traipse across his yard anytime they please. There have to be some kind of safeguards to protect the leader of the free world.
The new fence will be in addition to legions of Secret Service officers already shadowing Joe wherever he goes.
Apparently, the decision to build a wall around his Rehoboth compound was made last fall.
According to The Washington Times, Aug. 19, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security approved a $455,000 construction contract a year ago with a Delaware company to erect a barrier around Joe’s “Summer Whitehouse.”
His Summer Whitehouse has become more of a “Four Seasons” retreat.
It’s undetermined what a walled residence on the shores of an exclusive seaside neighborhood will do to property values. I doubt the locals will be enamored by a fortress-like edifice, enhanced with the latest camera and detection technology, staffed by armed SS agents driving shiny black SUVs, which would be a welcomed addition to the community.
HOA rules and regulations may have to be amended to accommodate the resident commander-in-chief.
The project was to have been completed by the end of 2021.
However, because of unexpected delays – supply chain shortages, perhaps – the original cost of the job has spiraled to $490,324. These figures were probably determined before inflation kicked in. So, who knows what the final price will be?
The completion date has been extended to June 6, 2023.
An odd date. June 6th is the annual anniversary of WWII’s D-Day Invasion in Normandy, France. Coincidence?
Maybe Joe can place a commemorative wreath for the historic occasion without leaving his front porch.
If this whole affair wasn’t so absurd, it’d be downright laughable. In Joe’s mind, walls work if they involve his peace and safety, but not so much where you or I am concerned.
We’re just peasants, to be taxed and used in whatever manner is most beneficial to the aristocracy in D.C.
Get used to it, because contained within the recently passed $740 billion spending spree – euphemistically entitled the “Inflation Reduction Act” — a slew of new IRS agents are headed our way to make sure we get used to it.
Odd, legislation promising “inflation reduction” is predicated upon something Joe told us in July 2021 was only a temporary inconvenience. Inflation was “transitory” and would soon be under control.
Sure, Joe. Just like $31 trillion in debt is only a passing annoyance.
The embarrassing frustrations in constructing a fence around his beach home are indictive of the quagmire his entire administration is bogged down in.
To his credit, his team must really have to work hard at being bewilderingly incompetent. It’s almost inconceivable Joe could assemble an entire cabinet of directors, administrators, and other bureaucrats who seem to be unbelievably ill-prepared, clumsy, and scatterbrained in what they do.
It’s totally amazing. All this ineptness can’t be by accident – there has to be some kind of devious scheming going on.
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author.
