GOP leaders won't say how border wall will be paid for

PHILADELPHIA — Republican leaders are vowing to pass a spending bill to build President Donald Trump’s border wall. What they won’t say is how they plan to cover the costs.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said Thursday that Congress will pass a supplemental bill before Sept. 30 that would fund a wall building project, which will cost about $12 billion to $15 billion, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. But Ryan dodged a question about whether Congress would raise taxes or cut spending to pay for such an endeavor.


“We’re going to wait and see from the administration what the supplemental looks like. I’m not going to get ahead of a policy and a bill that has not been written yet. But the point is we’re going to finance the Secure Fence Act,” Ryan said, referring to a 2006 bill.

Later Thursday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said a tax overhaul that includes a new 20 percent tax on imports from countries with which the United States has a trade deficit, such as Mexico, would sufficiently fund the wall.

Speaking to reporters at the GOP retreat, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) suggested he would oppose such a funding bill without more details about using drones and towers to protect the border and said it's incumbent on newly installed Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to sell the proposal to Congress. McCain also said he was "confident" the initial bill would not include $15 billion in spending.

"A major factor in this will be if Gen. Kelly can come before the Congress and say here’s my plan to give you a secure border," McCain said. “We have to see the details of it and the cost and if they aren’t going to use all those tools I'm talking about I’m not inclined to support it. Whether it will succeed or fail will be directly dependent upon Gen. Kelly’s presentation of a plan for how it’s going to happen. “

Promising that the fence will be paid for with taxpayer dollars could complicate things on Capitol Hill, where coming up with several billion dollars is no small task. Republicans could raise revenues, cut spending or require the U.S. Treasury to borrow money for the costs — a move that would increase the deficit. Later on Thursday, Ryan would not commit that this Congress would keep the deficit from growing, though he said items like infrastructure improvements would be paid for.

“We are fiscal conservatives,” he said. “We have to get our fiscal house in order to prevent a debt crisis in the future.”

Though leaders declined to say how the wall would be funded, rank-and-file conservatives began insisting that no matter what, the wall would be paid for. Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said House appropriators were already crafting ways to offset the costs of the border wall.

“I vote for things that are offset. I’m a stronger believer in offsetting, whatever it is you’re gonna be spending money on," said Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho). "The government today borrows one and a quarter billion dollars a day. And that can’t go on. So it needs to be offset.”

Trump clearly wants to get going soon, saying Thursday that if Mexico ultimately doesn’t refund the U.S. for building a border wall “it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting” with the Mexican government. With that urgent directive coming from the new president, Republicans are promising to pass a bill funding the border wall even if they have no guidance on what exactly Trump wants in the legislation.

“The last administration frustrated the deployment of the fence," Ryan said. "This administration is doing the opposite. They’re facilitating the deployment of the fence. We agree with this. We voted for this in 2006, along with plenty of people like our friend Chuck Schumer,” the Senate minority leader.

Republicans will need at least eight Senate Democrats to come together and help pay for the wall — and Schumer (D-N.Y.) indicated earlier this month that he could oppose such legislation. Republicans think the 10 Senate Democrats up for reelection in Trump states could help fund the wall, but it’s going to be a heavy lift regardless.

“The same Republicans who howled ‘fiscal responsibility’ when it comes to investments to help working families are apparently willing to light billions of taxpayer dollars on fire and add to the federal deficit in order to build Trump’s useless border wall,” said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “The wall is a multi-billion dollar boondoggle in the making."