House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday said the Trump administration is considering a number of ways to bill Mexico for the southern border wall that the president ordered earlier today be completed.
“We’re going to pay for it and front the money up. But I do think that there are various ways — as you know, I know your follow-up question is, is Mexico going to pay for the wall?” Ryan told MSNBC host Greta Van Susteren.
“There are a lot of different ways of getting Mexico to contribute to doing this. And there are different ways of defining how exactly they pay for it.”
WATCH: Who’s going to pay for the border wall? Here’s what @SpeakerRyan just told me – more tonight on #ForTheRecord at 6pET on @MSNBC! pic.twitter.com/VCQgVM4Goj— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) January 25, 2017
The administration is mulling over whether to bill Mexico by taxing the $24 billion in remittances people living in the U.S. illegally send to Mexico every year or relying on the “border adjustment,” a plan by House Republicans to lower the corporate tax from 35 percent to 20 percent and apply that tax based on location of consumption instead of location of production.
As far as taking physical action on the border, Ryan said Trump’s executive orders cited a 2006 law that the border be completed — one that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer supported a decade ago.
“The law is already on the books, it’s been sitting there for years. I voted for it like 10 years ago, but nothing has gotten done. And now we have a president who actually wants to secure the border and we are all in favor of doing that,” Ryan said.
The president plans to handle Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival recipients “compassionately,” Ryan added. That issue will be dealt with after national security issues are handled.
