Sen. Marco Rubio, fresh from meeting with Mexican officials, said Sunday that he suspected that Mexico would not pay for a border wall between their country and ours. On ABC’s “This Week,” Rubio said that Trump’s promise to make our southern amigos pony up the money was likely to be broken.
“Well, we met with the foreign minister as well and it did come up in our meeting,” Rubio said. “Let me just say, Mexico’s not going to pay for the wall. And by the way, America should, if we believe that’s in our national interest to do so.”
Of course, that last line is just a way for Rubio to pretend that he’s in favor of the wall and, you know, he’s just reporting the facts as they are. Which is ridiculous, because Rubio was part of the Gang of Eight that tried to pass comprehensive immigration reform under Obama…a package that would have included amnesty for nearly every illegal immigrant in the country. That was the failed bill that set the Republican Party on the path to Donald Trump, and Rubio has been trying to distance himself from it ever since.
That’s not to say Rubio is a terrible person or anything; he’s just got the usual GOP weak spot for immigrants. These guys do not want anything to do with Trump’s immigration policies, even though those policies percolated out of the GOP’s opposition to Obama’s executive orders. But Republicans wanted to have it both ways: Preach the hardline rhetoric when fighting Obama, but then roll it back to ObamaLite when it came time to campaign and govern. Trump caught on to this hypocrisy, and he went out there with a message that matched what Republicans were saying when they didn’t have to stand accountable. And look how the people responded!
Rubio went on to say that the U.S. could work with Mexico for the mutual benefit of both countries.
“I think the Mexican government is open to renegotiating key points of NAFTA on intellectual property as an example. I think they have a real interest in their border security, in their southern border,” Rubio said. “I think Mexico’s willing to be a partner in El Salvador, Guatemala, the Honduras, the Northern Triangle countries that are the source of a lot of the migration that’s coming in through Mexico. Mexico’s as much a transit point now as it is a source of origin for people coming into the United States.”
That’s fantastic. But while they’re working with us on that partnership, why not slip us a few bucks for the wall? It’s only fair, considering how their lack of border security is at least partly to blame for the problems on ours. That’s what Rubio’s saying, right? That the reason we’re having so many problems at the border is that Mexico can’t control their own southern situation? Okay, but then why should the entire monetary burden fall on us? Oh, well, it’s obvious; Mexico doesn’t care about stopping these hooligans because none of them care to stick around in their country. It’s a “transit point.” It’s a sort of purgatory for U.S.-bound Central Americans. Not their problem.
Well, Trump has promised to make it their problem. And that’s what no one seems to understand. Whenever someone says, “Mexico is not paying for the wall,” it’s like they thought the Mexican president was going to write Trump a check on January 20th. Come on. Trump never said he would “appreciate it if Mexico paid for the wall.” He said he would MAKE them pay for it.
Maybe he’ll make good on that promise and maybe not, but what Mexican officials are saying today about financing the wall has no relevance on the outcome one way or the other.
In the meantime, maybe Rubio could, you know, actually show some support for the president’s agenda. Too much to ask?
