After years of Trump’s claims that Mexico will pay for a border wall, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) now says it is “not excessive” for American taxpayers to pay $5 billion for the useless structure.

Meanwhile, Republicans have been pushing for cuts to Social Security to make up for tax cuts given to the ultra rich.

Trump has insisted that $5 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds be allocated for the border wall, risking a second shutdown of the government.

Appearing on CNN, Sen. Lankford was asked about Trump’s demands.

He replied, “The big drama is about the border wall funding, a 5-billion-dollar amount is not an excessive amount for what can be done reasonably in a year.”

The decision to put taxpayers on the hook is an about-face for Republicans, who campaigned with Trump on the claim that the wall would be built and financed by Mexico.

After Trump assumed the presidency, the Mexican government made it abundantly clear it would not be funding the construction of the wall. The Mexican foreign ministry said in a statement, “Our country will not pay, under any circumstances, for a wall or physical barrier built on US territory along the Mexican border.”

The wall has never made any sense, except as a symbol of the Republican Party’s embrace of racism and bigotry.

The new demand that taxpayers pay for the structure comes just a few weeks after the top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell, called for cuts to Social Security to fund the gaps created by the party’s failed tax scam.

Lankford’s rhetoric shows that his party’s misplaced priorities favor hurting average Americans while wasting money on projects motivated by bigotry.

The wall doesn’t make any sense and Mexico isn’t paying for it, but Republicans want to waste billions of dollars on it anyway.

Published with permission of the American Independent. Attribution: Oliver Willis.