Dept. Homeland Security's $400 Million Debt

It would appear that incurring debt is not limited to bailing out Wall Street. The Department of Homeland Security is already over $400 million in its project of building the border fence. Unexpected construction costs and legal holdups have paralyzed construction just weeks after DHS broke ground in the Valley. A Sept. 10 Government Accountability Office report said the average cost of fencing has increased more than 40 percent this year.

The Government Accountability Office said:

According to program officials, as of August 2008, fencing costs averaged $7.5 million per mile for pedestrian fencing and $2.8 million per mile for vehicle fencing, up from estimates in February 2008 of $4 million and $2 million per mile, respectively. Furthermore, the life-cycle cost is not yet known, in part because of increasing construction costs and because the program office has yet to determine maintenance costs and locations for fencing projects beyond December 2008. In addition, land acquisition issues present a challenge to completing fence construction.

Maybe the government hoped to hire some "irregular migrants" to help build the wall!