Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by mrpg on Saturday December 15 2018, @05:05PM   Printer-friendly
from the Buy-a-Brick,-Build-a-Wall-Act dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

As President Donald Trump threatened to allow a government shutdown if Congress did not provide funding for his proposed wall along the Mexican border, a Republican congressman from Ohio offered up alternative routes to getting the wall built: through Internet crowdfunding or through an initial coin offering.

During an interview with NPR's Morning Edition on December 12, Rep. Warren Davidson said that he had offered what he referred to as a "modest proposal" in the form of his "Buy a Brick, Build a Wall Act." The bill, which he submitted on November 30, would authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to accept monetary gifts from anyone "on the condition that it be used to plan, design, construct, or maintain a barrier along the international border between the United States and Mexico." The funds would go into an account called the "Border Wall Trust Fund," and a public website would be set up to process donations electronically.

Rep. Davidson told NPR's Steve Inskeep that the donations could come from anyone and be gathered in a number of ways."You could do it with this sort of, like, crowdfunding site," Davidson explained. "Or you could do it with blockchain—you could have Wall Coins."

Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/12/ohio-congressman-we-can-fund-border-wall-with-wallcoin/


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Saturday December 15 2018, @08:17PM (2 children)

    by Thexalon (636) on Saturday December 15 2018, @08:17PM (#774915)

    One reason for this kind of thing is that there are real reasons to doubt that Donald Trump is capable of basic arithmetic [bloomberg.com]. As in, he might be genuinely unable to figure out things at a glance like $10 billion being greater than $50 million.

    There's also some evidence that Donald Trump might not be able to read [theroot.com].

    Congratulations, America, for choosing a leader that is unable to meet the rigorous standards applied to 12-year-olds! Great job!

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +4  
       Flamebait=1, Insightful=4, Interesting=1, Total=6
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 16 2018, @04:29AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 16 2018, @04:29AM (#775050)

    I dunno, 5% GDP when Malik's brother said we'd never go above 2%. I guess he must just be a retard.

    • (Score: 1) by j-beda on Sunday December 16 2018, @04:54PM

      by j-beda (6342) on Sunday December 16 2018, @04:54PM (#775119) Homepage

      I dunno, 5% GDP when Malik's brother said we'd never go above 2%. I guess he must just be a retard.

      When you make up numbers that are not tied to reality, it undermines your statement. Data does support the "above 2%" figure, but still far below 5%.

      https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp-growth [tradingeconomics.com]
      "The US economy advanced an annualized 3.5 percent on quarter in the third quarter of 2018, in line with earlier figures, the second estimate showed. It follows a 4.2 percent growth in the previous period which was the highest since the third quarter of 2014. Upward revisions to nonresidential fixed investment and private inventory investment were offset by downward revisions to personal consumption expenditures (PCE) and state and local government spending. GDP Growth Rate in the United States averaged 3.22 percent from 1947 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 16.70 percent in the first quarter of 1950 and a record low of -10 percent in the first quarter of 1958."