In recent days, we have witnessed a series of Republican border tax proposals designed, it is claimed, to bring jobs back to the United States. This is going on against a legislative backdrop that is focused on building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico for the purpose of reducing the flow of undocumented people into the U.S.

Strangely enough, the bring-back-jobs effort is occurring at a time when the nation’s unemployment rate rests at 4.8 percent and there are 5.5 million unfilled jobs awaiting qualified applicants.