While it’s not a trend you’d want Congress to get comfortable with, New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin offered an alternative to the US government funding a wall along the southern border: crowdfund the wall.
Appearing on “Fox & Friends,” Goodwin was asked by co-host Brian Kilmeade during a discussion on President Donald Trump’s willingness to shut down the government if he does not get border wall funding if there was a “private way” to get the wall built.
Source: Fox & Friends segment calls on Trump voters to give $80 each to fund the wall by BPR
“There is,” replied Goodwin, who insisted the public supports strong border security. “You can create a GoFundMe operation. Others suggest other ways, there’s an existing effort called FundTheWall.com run by a sheriffs association that’s raised some money, but nowhere near what is needed.”
He then suggested that the president’s supporters could get it done.
“According to my mail, a lot of people are willing to chip in,” Goodwin said. “One reader writes to me and says if the 63 million people who voted for Donald Trump each contributed $80, that would get you near the $5 billion mark.”
Many Americans would gladly surrender $80 if they could be assured it would result in an effective border wall — Goodwin was adamant that “that’s the kind of thing that needs to happen.”
“It could be a people’s wall,” he told Kilmeade.
Goodwin pointed to his column to say there are a number of ideas that he included in his column to address the accounting mechanism that could be used.
My column: Time for those who want the wall to go fund it. https://t.co/hv4SbNLEEv via @nypost
— Michael Goodwin (@mgoodwin_nypost) December 16, 2018
“The important thing is the public could step in and effectively do this thing that the president wants, and there are ways for the government to accept private donations,” he added.
The Fox News host responded to the idea by appealing to the great American spirit of entrepreneurship.
“Like minor league baseball, buy some ads on it,” Kilmeade said.
Via BPR
