Facts on funding for border fence wrong

I am writing to respond to the letter from Barbara Vidock printed Oct. 29. She indicates that there is no consistency in defunding of laws in Congress and compares the defunding effort of the ACA or Obamacare to the supposed defunding of the bill to build a 700-mile border fence between the U.S. and Mexico. As seems to be the case in many letters from what I consider the far right, the facts show Ms. Vidock’s message is at best a vast distortion of the truth.

The border fence bill was passed and enacted in 2006 and budgeted for $1.2 billion. Unfortunately the funding proved to be well short of what was needed to build all 700 miles. Nevertheless, 613 miles were erected by 2009 on the southwest border from California to Texas. A bill was reintroduced by Sen. Jim DeMint to complete the 700 miles and erect an additional 353 miles of fencing in 2010. The cost of the Secure Fence Mandate proved to be more than the entire annual border patrol budget, and the new bill was defeated in committee. There was no defunding of the original bill.

There are legitimate criticisms that can be directed at provisions and implementation of the ACA, but why not do a little research of the facts before making completely erroneous statements.

Don Baker

Elk Grove Village