美国国家公共电台 NPR FACT CHECK: Mexico Isn't Paying For The Border Wall, Military Unlikely To Build It

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Congress is on the verge¹ of approving a temporary spending bill and avoiding a government shutdown. The Senate passed a short-term measure last night. It heads to the House now.

Still, President Trump² has not said whether he will sign it. This bill does not have the $5 billion in border wall funding that the president wanted. In recent days, he's offered some new explanations for how that wall could be funded. And NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith brings us this fact check.

TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE³: On Day 1 of his campaign, President Trump made this pledge.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall.

KEITH: Three and a half years later, President Trump has a new pitch for building the border wall. As he wrote on Twitter, quote, "Mexico is paying indirectly⁴ for the wall through the new USMCA, the replacement⁵ for NAFTA. Far more money coming to the U.S." He concludes, the United States military will build the wall - exclamation⁶ point.

Much of this tweet is not based in reality. Let's break it down, starting with the USMCA. President Trump talks about it like it's already in place. It isn't, says Monica de Bolle at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

MONICA DE BOLLE: What we have in place right now is still NAFTA until the new agreement gets through the different legislatures that it needs to get through.

KEITH: At the White House press briefing earlier this week, Sarah Sanders was asked to explain how the USMCA would pay, even indirectly, for the wall.

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SARAH SANDERS: We're talking about additional revenue that wouldn't have existed without the president getting a new deal.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Have you done the math on that?

SANDERS: There are - have been a number of things that we've looked at, which we know will have additional revenue that comes in through the USMCA.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: From the USMCA into the Treasury⁷?

SANDERS: We think there will be more than that that comes in.

KEITH: It's not clear where her math is coming from because the White House Council of Economic Advisers⁸ hasn't studied the expected economic impacts of the new trade deal yet. Neither has the U.S. Trade Representative.

David Gantz is a law professor at the University of Arizona who focuses on trade agreements.

DAVID GANTZ: There is no guarantee that, on a net basis, this trade agreement will produce more economic benefits for the U.S. than NAFTA did in the past. We don't know yet, and we won't know for several years.

KEITH: If Trump and Sanders are referring to revenue from tariffs⁹, de Bolle, who is an economist¹⁰, points out that wouldn't be coming from Mexico either.

DE BOLLE: If you are collecting more revenues, it's because you're making your own consumers pay more for stuff that they were paying less for before. So you're making the Treasury better off at the expense of your own consumers. It's not at the expense of some other country. It's not.

KEITH: Let's go back to the second half of President Trump's tweet. He says the United States military will build the wall.

TODD HARRISON: This is not going to happen.

KEITH: Todd Harrison is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. And here's why he's making such a bold prediction.

HARRISON: For the military to build the wall, that would qualify as a military construction project, and there's not any money currently appropriated for this - certainly not $5 billion.

KEITH: So let's say the president decided¹¹ the military should take money already set aside for something else and use it to build the wall instead. That would require approval from Congress, says Harrison.

HARRISON: Keep in mind that this approval process - you have to get all of the relevant committees in both chambers¹² to approve it. If any one of those committees says, no, you can't do it.

KEITH: He has a hard time imagining those committees signing off, especially once Democrats¹³ take control of the House. Tamara Keith, NPR News, the White House.

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1 verge   

n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• She was on the verge of bursting into tears.她快要哭出来了。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 indirectly   

adv.间接地，不直接了当地

参考例句：

• I heard the news indirectly.这消息我是间接听来的。
• They were approached indirectly through an intermediary.通过一位中间人，他们进行了间接接触。

5 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

6 exclamation   

n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词

参考例句：

• He could not restrain an exclamation of approval.他禁不住喝一声采。
• The author used three exclamation marks at the end of the last sentence to wake up the readers.作者在文章的最后一句连用了三个惊叹号，以引起读者的注意。

7 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

8 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

9 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

10 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

11 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

12 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

13 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》